"Urg…" Groaning slightly from the pain she was feeling, Shiro forced her eyes open albeit with some difficulty.
"Hm? I'm in the camp…" She muttered as she looked around her.
She saw that she was alone right now with no one inside the tent.
"Ha…." She sighed heavily. She couldn't believe that she had just been outsmarted and outperformed by her own shadow.
Since her shadow could use all of her abilities along with the same combat experience, it meant that whatever the shadow did, she could do as well.
'Seems like I haven't fully understood my potential as a mage.' Shiro thought since her shadow was a better mage than her.
Not only was her shadow able to cast a tier 3 magic without problem, but she was also able to combine her skills together in ways she had never thought of.
Even a random hobby she picked up such as the flute was combined with Cold Illusions to disorientate her.
Sitting in silence for a while, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Since the shadow is a copy of me, whatever she can do, I can do as well." She muttered. If she was defeated by her shadow, it meant that she wasn't fighting to the best of her ability.
She checked her system and noticed that the 5th star up had a cool down after failure. She needed to wait 3 days before she could try the trial again.
'3 days should be enough for me to improve.'
Standing up from her bed, Shiro flinched a little from the pain in her joints.
Moving body around, she found that her body was mostly damaged around the joint areas.
Clutching her fists, Shiro decided to try practise some of her combat skills that she had slacked on once she recovered. Naturally, she wanted to improve her close quarters combat the most.
During the fight, while she could hold her own against her shadow, she could tell that she was a little better in her usage of the blades meaning she wasn't utilizing her full power with bladed weapons.
'The trial seems to show me what I am currently capable of with my body. What I saw in the trial was me at my best. Seems like I've been slacking.' Shiro mused to herself as she exited the tent. When she exited the tent, she saw Kanae practising diligently by the side.
Sweat dripped off her body as she was currently practising different poses to increase her flexibility.
"Ah Shiro-nee! You shouldn't be out right now!" Kanae cried out in surprise when she saw Shiro. Breaking her pose, she jogged over and started to examine Shiro's body.
[I'm fine.] Shiro smiled and patted her head.
Looking towards the tree that was next to their tent, she saw the tree damaged heavily on the side showing her where she had hit before passing out. Above that spot, Yin was sleeping as usual.
"You're not fine. Mum went out to buy some medicine when she saw you puking out blood by the tree." Kanae frowned.
[Let's wait for her then. I'll watch you practice.] Shiro walked over to the tree and sat down.
Kanae nodded her head excitedly since she wanted to impress Shiro.
While Shiro watched Kanae stretch and push her flexibility to the limit, she realised that Kanae had always been utilising 100% of her effort.
This led her to realise one of her mistakes.
'I don't know enough about my own arsenal along with the fact that I underestimated my shadow.' She thought whilst smiling wearily.
Since her shadow was her at 100% performance, why did she expect to defeat herself with only 80% of her effort?
'I knew it was a shadow of myself with all my skills and nothing else. If I had fully studied my skills, I could have entered the fight with and all out offensive and end the fight quickly.' She thought with a shake of her head.
Watching Kanae practice, Shiro couldn't help herself and also wanted to practice.
Pinching her fingers together, Shiro created an ice flute.
'Cold Illusions is great during a fight which can also pair well with my Killing Intent. If I mix the two together, I'll be able to apply tones of mental pressure.'
Twirling the flute between her fingers, Shiro brought it to her lips and started to play a melody she remembered from the internet. Her mind had stored the way on how to play it along with the finger placements.
Kanae paused hearing the melody but widened her eyes when she saw several Shiro's around the tree.
3 were sitting on the branches while 4 more were sitting around the tree.
What Kanae didn't know was that the area around Shiro was currently drenched in Killing Intent. Shiro was concentrating hard on trying to restrain her passive ability so that it didn't freeze everything she touched.
'Since it's a passive, I should have some control over it. Since it matches the output of my Killing Intent, it means the power should be controllable using other sources. ' She thought as Ice was slowly expanding outwards.
Feeling the pain suddenly shoot through her body, Shiro flinched and stopped the melody. When the melody stopped, her illusions also faded away.
Breathing heavily for a short moment, Shiro frowned for a moment before looking at Kanae.
[I'll be right back.]
Entering the tent, Shiro made sure that she was alone before using Fire of Life to start healing herself.
Feeling the soothing energy that was currently flowing through her body, Shiro relaxed and allowed the fire to heal her body little by little.
Naturally, due to the ridiculous MP consumption, Shiro knew she probably couldn't heal her internal injuries in one go.
While she was relaxing, she remembered about a few questions she had in the fight.
"How did Shadow sense me through the ice? Then there's also the problem of her taking control of my ice during the fight." She muttered.
She didn't know what her shadow had done to control the ice she had created, but she knew it would be possible for her since her shadow performed the task. The only question left is how.
Thinking about all the cases she knew about taking control of someone else's element during her past life, Shiro was disappointed when she found that none of them fit the scenario she had experienced.
"Hmm…"
Contemplating for a while, she suddenly realised a huge misconception she fell into.
"Since I'm a snow girl, a monster known for their attunement with ice and snow, I should have control over all the ice related elements in my area. Because I'm no longer a human, human logic hardly applies to me anymore. Humans need to train and fight to level up while I, a monster, can get a certain amount of EXP by eating mana stones just like Yin who levelled 5 times through eating a C class stone. I need to change my thought process to match my current body.
"Monsters can outperform humans in many ways. I'm just not taking advantage of that." She muttered in realisation.
What her shadow had taken advantage of the most was her skill tree she received from being a snow girl. The only time she used her Nanomancer Class was to match up with her.
"So in other words, I've only increased my weaknesses by being so fixated with my second class all this time huh?" Shiro chuckled slightly in disappointment.
She had severely underestimated her combat potential with her class. Being so focused on her previous class caused her to neglect the fact that she was hindering herself by not training with her race class.
Nanomancer wasn't supposed to be a low level class to begin with. The fact that she was even allowed to create her gun right now was somewhat of a miracle in itself. By being so fixated on using her guns, which is weakened to begin with due to her low level, she had robbed herself of her potential as a level 45 MONSTER.
"My main focus will be to understand what's at my disposal for my Snow Girl class. Once I know what I can do, I'll be able to predict what shadow will do." Shiro said whilst putting out the fire.
Leaving the tent, Shiro gestured for Kanae to come over to her.
"What is it Shiro-nee?"
[Do you want to play a game?]
"What game?" Kanae asked excitedly.
[We'll play hide and seek but you'll be hiding inside some ice. To make it harder for me, I won't be allowed to look.] Shiro smiled. She wanted to use this to try sense people through her ice like what her shadow did.
"Ooo ok. Are there any prizes?"
[Well if I don't find you, you win a day out where we can do whatever you want.] Shiro offered.
"Deal!"
Seeing that Kanae had agreed, Shiro cleared some space around her and placed her palm on the floor.
*KRRR!!!
A small ice tower started to construct itself with a myriad of cupboards and crevices for Kanae to hide herself in. The overall length and width of the tower wasn't big but the height was another question.
The sudden appearance of an ice tower confused the surrounding adventurers for a moment before they ignored it. Since they see people using spells everyday, the sudden appearance of an ice tower wasn't too unusual.
[I'll give you 30 seconds to hide yourself before I come looking for you.]
Pulling out a blindfold, Shiro placed it over her eyes and made sure that she couldn't see anything.
[I'll start counting once I sit down in the middle of the first room.]
"Got it."
Walking towards the tower, Shiro used her hearing to point her in the direction.
Sitting herself down, she secretly made a pair of earbuds that completely blocked out the sound around her. All she could hear was her own breathing and heartbeat.
Placing her hands down onto the ice, Shiro calmed her mind down and wondered about what she could do to sense Kanae.
Her first idea was to use mana. If she was to connect her mana through the ice, she should be able to sense things that way but she knew that wasn't what her shadow had done. What she had done was more instinctive and faster than slowly infuse mana into the ice.
'I'm a Snow Girl. I should have complete control over the ice around me.'
30 seconds passed by quickly as it was time for her to look for Kanae but she didn't move.
2 minutes passed and Kanae was wondering about why Shiro hadn't moved yet.
5 minutes passed as she got a little impatient.
However, before she could leave her hiding spot, she saw Shiro stand up slowly.
Tilting her head back a little, Shiro realised that after being robbed of her sight and hearing, she was in a state of enhanced sensory where her feeling of touch was increased alongside her mana sense.
When paired with 5 minutes of complete focus, she noticed how the building was completely connected to her with blank spots that show the contact of something foreign.
'That's Kanae's hiding spot.' Shiro smiled. Since controlling ice was her passive 'skill' as a monster, sensing the changes to the ice would have been instinctive to begin with. All she needed was a little time and focus for her to grasp it.
Kanae was getting a little nervous went Shiro started to walk up the stairs without problem. Not to mention, she was even looking towards her hiding spot right now.
An idea popped into her head as she tiptoed out her spot and started to hide herself elsewhere.
What she didn't know was that every step of hers was akin to a spot of black on a white sheet of paper.
Tracking Kanae easily, Shiro arrived in front of her.
[Surprised?] Shiro smiled and lifted up her blindfolds. While she did this, she didn't forget to disassemble her ear plugs as well.
Kanae only pouted feeling a little annoyed that she can't have her day out.
Seeing Kanae pout, Shiro's heart softened.
[I'll take you out anyways don't worry. I have 3 days spare for now.] Shiro typed out.
"Really?!" Kanae cried out in excitement.
"What are you girls doing?" Yumi shouted out from under the tower. She had just returned from buying Shiro some medicine and she saw both Shiro and Kanae high up in an ice tower.
"I'm playing hide and seek with Shiro-nee!" Kanae replied.
"Don't be naughty. Your Shiro-nee need to recover. She is very hurt." Yumi frowned.
[Let's go. We'll play tomorrow when we have more time.]
"Fine…"
Walking down the tower, Shiro thawed all the ice as Yumi showed her the medicine.
"Mum said that these potions will help sooth your body and help speed up your recovery." Kanae translated.
[Thank you very much. How much did they cost?] Shiro asked as she didn't want to be in debt.
"She said to forget about it. Think of it as payment for teaching me." Kanae smiled whilst rolling around.
"Kanae. Don't roll around." Yumi frowned a little.
"But mum~ Shiro-nee is going to be playing with me all day tomorrow." Kanae replied as she couldn't wait. She was going to get Shiro to take her exploring everywhere around the city since she never got the chance too.
Seeing her excitement, Shiro smiled softly.
She had three days till the trials refresh. In those three days, she needed to increase her mastery over her main class, Snow Girl, along with explore more options available to her with her current arsenal without the use of her Nanomancer Class.
Of course, spending a day with Kanae wasn't much of a problem. If anything, she could delay her trial a little since she could continuously challenge it as long as she doesn't reach level 50. Otherwise, she'll lose her qualification to challenge her 5th star due to the class upgrade.
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