Once they returned to the camp, the first thing they did was split the loot.
"I'll get your outfits done soon. Just give me a text and I'll show you a few designs." Aarim smiled before bidding farewell.
Unfortunately, none of the loot Shiro had managed to acquire was actually useful for her so she just gave some to Lyrica and Madison before going to sleep.
The next morning, she was making her way to the auction house.
Putting a few of these on auction, Shiro decided that she may as well get some money for the items she didn't need. While she could indeed recycle a few items for their skills, the items that she had gotten didn't have any worthwhile skills for her.
The next stop was the adventurer's guild. She needed to update her status once more.
"Welcome nya. Ohya? So it's you Shiro. Well are you going to surprise me again today?" Susie smiled.
[Maybe.] Shiro shrugged.
Giving Susie her ID, she waited patiently for her to update it.
"Wow, level 45 already nya. If you continue at your pace, you might break the record for fastest class C you know?" She said before handing back Shiro's ID card.
Although the difference from last time was just 2 levels, it should be noted that the last stretch of levels before the peak of a class was the hardest to level up. That was due to the fact that you couldn't surpass levels and kill higher level monsters as easily. The difference between level 50 and 51 wasn't something one can cross.
However, she doesn't know that Shiro's stats had effectively doubled so fighting level 51 monsters was still within her reach.
[Name: Shiro
Estimated Age: 13
Class: Ice Mage
LVL: 45
Mage's Association Membership: VIP (New York Branch)
Priority Rank: 9 (New York Branch)]
After bidding Susie farewell, Shiro made her way back to the camp.
"Welcome back. Are you going to give your 5th star up a try now?" Lyrica asked as she had been doing her morning practises.
[Yep. See you soon.] Shiro smiled before tapping the initiate button under her task.
A golden portal expanded beneath her and teleported her away.
Blinking her eyes a few times, Shiro looked around her and saw that she was in an empty field of white. She was currently standing on some sort of marbled floor that stretched as far as the eye could see.
[You have entered the Truth Realm. Prepare to face your shadow.]
Looking at the notification, Shiro's first instinct was to check what she had on her.
'Right so it seems like I can use all of my skills but no tools. That means Ascendant Dream isn't allowed either.' She thought to herself when she noticed the lack of her necklace.
Flexing her fingers, two copies of Harbinger's Sorrow appeared in her hands.
Cracking the bones all over her body, Shiro narrowed her eyes in concentration. Since it was to fight an exact copy of herself, it meant that it had her abilities and stats.
[Begin.]
The moment the notification appeared, an identical version of Shiro appeared in front of her with two hand cannons in her hands.
*BANG BANG!
They both shot at the same time. The bullets collided with each other before being deflected in two different directions.
The shadow didn't pause for long as she crouched down and dashed towards Shiro with Yin Style Phantom Arts.
Inserting mana into her eyes, Shiro made sure that she didn't lose sight of her shadow.
*BANG BANG!
Shooting twice with her gun, Shiro frowned when the shadow bent her body to avoid the bullets before firing back with her own gun.
Instead of dodging, Shiro shifted her foot which caused a giant ice wall to erect in front of her.
*CRACK CRACK!
The bullet hit the wall and destroyed parts of it but failed to penetrate.
Her shadow frowned a little before flipping backwards and erected a giant ice pillar for herself to stand on.
Pinching her index and thumb together, an ice flute was created in her hands. Bringing the flute to her mouth, the shadow started to play a gentle melody.
Shiro, who was suddenly attacked with a massive headache, had to blink her eyes a few times to try reorientate herself.
However, when she did, she saw ten clones charging at her.
'Flute combined with Cold illusion huh?' Shiro thought with a frown. She hadn't paid attention to the flute since she had other things to do but she never expected the shadow to have access to everything she had. Even a hobby she decided to pick up on a whim but never practice again.
Pivoting on her right foot, Shiro dodged the first clone and tried to counter attack. But that clone faded into cold mist which in turn froze her arm a little.
Widening her eyes, she quickly jumped backwards and erected several ice pillars for her to create some distance. But to her dismay, her clone was a copy of her with the same attributes. They parkoured through the pillars with ease as some even managed to get ahead of her.
Sliding across the ground, Shiro flicked her wrist, creating several ice spears that shot towards the clone.
*BANG BANG BANG!
Just as she did that, three gunshots rang out as bullets shot towards her.
"HA!" She shouted out and stomped hard onto the ground. Killing intent exploded out of her body and ice formed around her due to her passive.
*CRACK CRACK PUCHI!
Two of the shots were barely stopped but the last shot had penetrated the wall and pierced her arm.
"F*ck!" She cursed since all three shots were aimed precisely at the same spot.
Quickly activating Fire of Life, Shiro tried to heal herself but froze when she felt danger behind her.
Dodging to the side at the last moment, she saw her shadow with an ice sword in hand.
Just as she had reacted and dodged, the shadow followed up and sliced her sword at Shiro.
Shiro gritted her teeth and bent her body backwards before sending a kick towards the shadow.
However, her kick had only phased through the shadow's body.
"####!!! Of course she uses faded snow movement." Shiro cursed and quickly rolled away.
"Gah! What a pain in the ass!"
She now somewhat understood what other people felt when she had fought them. But right after she said that, a magic circle appeared behind her.
'HOLY SH*T!' She thought and instantly activated Faded Snow Movement.
An ice spear phased pass her body.
Shiro paled when she realised that her anal v.i.r.g.i.nity would have been taken by her own shadow if she didn't use her skill.
Flexing her fingers, several ice daggers appeared in her hands as she activated ice chain to lock down her shadow.
Understanding what she was trying to do, the shadow also used ice chain and locked Shiro down. The two of them spent this time to make eye contact once more.
A magic circle suddenly appeared behind the shadow and shot out an ice spear. Similar to what Shiro did, the shadow used faded snow movement to escape the dreaded spear.
Looking down at the spear, the shadow glared at Shiro.
"Who the hell are you glaring at hah?! You're the one who tried to take this miss's ass first!" Shiro retorted.
The shadow rolled her eyes as the two of them struggled out of the ice chains and made some space between them.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Both of them shot towards each other but their bullets only collided and deflected to the surroundings.
Shiro suddenly had an idea and crafted a special whistle bullet that would let out a sound as it fired.
*BANG!
Shooting the bullet, she also paired it up with Cold Illusions which disorientated her shadow.
However, due to the fact that it was done hastily, she wasn't successful in creating illusions but instead, disorientated her shadow.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Three out of the five bullets hit while the other two phased through her body.
Using Yin Style Phantom Art's to quickly retreat, the shadow activated the fire of life and quickly healed itself.
"You've got to be kidding me." Shiro muttered as she couldn't help but sigh at the fact that her arsenal of skills was so diverse.
'Since that's the case, I'll have to try to make her run out of MP.' Shiro thought.
However, just as she had thought that, her shadow slammed her palm into the ground and froze the entire place over, activating both their passives of Ice Field Affinity.
"Oh right. The passive. . ."
Sighing heavily, Shiro couldn't help but lament about how she had made this quest harder by having such a diverse arsenal of skills.
Now only that, BUT THE SHADOW HAD CONSTANTLY BEEN TRYING TO PIERCE HER ASS!
"What the hell is your problem!!!" Shiro shouted out in annoyance. To have to fight whilst protecting her ass was harder than one would think. The moment her guard around her ass dropped even slightly, an ice spear would appear.
Clashing with her shadow for a few more times, Shiro knew that this was going to be a long day.
###
As for Aarim, the first thing she did in the morning was research the Item Shiro had broken in a fit of rage.
"Curious..." She muttered. The composition of the item was a little more advanced when compared to other life saving items she had seen. The item seals the power belonging to a strong individual and preserves it over a long period of time. Not only that, but once a person had used the power stored inside, they can reuse it as long as they store more power into it.
It was a reusable life saving tool if one had to call it something. Unfortunately, Shiro had broken it.
"But seriously, why was she angry? The statue looks quite handsome and the description of the item said that it was the image of a hero. What could have possibly set her off?" Aarim sighed as she was curious to Shiro's background.
Someone as talented and as injured as her doesn't just come out of nowhere.
Shaking her head, she decided to place the item aside for now and start to design the outfits.
She knew that Shiro liked the colours white and black, Madison liked black and red whilst Lyrica liked white, green, yellow and blue.
"One's an elf, one has a demon class and the other is a powerful loli." She muttered in humour.
While Aarim was designing the clothes, Lyrica and Madison were thinking about which dungeon they should challenge.
However, they when they were walking through the city, they never expected for them to run into Silvia.
"Silvia?" Lyrica called out a little hesitantly.
"Ah, it's you two. Heya." She replied with a small but sad smile.
"Do you… want to sit down and have a chat for a bit?" Madison offered since to her, it looked like Silvia could really use some help.
"…sure." She nodded after a moment of silence.
Lyrica took them to a café she knew of near by and sat near one of the window seats.
"Would you like to order anything?" The waitress asked politely.
"No we're fine for now." Lyrica smiled.
The waitress nodded before walking away.
"So what happened? We never got word back from you. Madison asked.
"Would you actively seek out the killer of two friends for a nice chat? Well I guess friends are pushing it a little since he did try to kill us after the dungeon." Silvia sighed. She somewhat forgave Shiro but the fact that she killed her 'friends' was still there.
That being said, if it wasn't for Shiro, they would have either died in the dungeon or died outside due to the mob.
Lyrica and Madison stayed silent since it was a fact they couldn't deny.
"We can't change what happened but we will do whatever we can to compensate you. I know a life is priceless but we will do what we can." Lyrica sighed.
"Mn you're still the same. Even after the dungeon, you haven't changed a bit." Silvia smiled.
"I don't need any compensation. I just need some ti- Hm.. actually. How about we do something together?" She smiled lightly. She could still remember Jonas's talk.
Since they weren't trustworthy under pressure, why spend more thoughts on them? Make better friends who will stay even in the face of life and death.
"Well me and Madi were about to go into a level 50 dungeon. Want to join us?" Lyrica asked.
"Sure." Silvia smiled. It would also be a good chance for her to see if she was compatible with the party. Well, two thirds of the party since Shiro wasn't here right now.
"Hm? Where's Shiro?" Silvia asked.
"Oh her? She's currently doing her 5th star up." Madison replied with a wave of her hand.
"So it's just us three." Lyrica smiled.
'Probably for the best.' Silvia thought since it may be a little awkward.
"So which dungeon are we going to?" She asked.
"We're going to the level 50 dungeon – Ocean Sky Fortress."
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