"Since all of us have levelled up, shall we end the dungeon runs for today?" Madison asked.
[Sure. I want to start doing my star up requirements.]
"Ah no wonder you're still an ice mage. You should be at 2 stars now right? And you're doing your 3rd star I believe." Lyrica said.
"3rd star huh? I heard that not a lot of people get their fifth star. But quite a few get their 4th star." Madison said whilst stretching her body a little.
[The fifth star is a lot harder since the benefits it gives are much more than what a normal class up offers. If it wasn't difficult, it would no longer be fair. Well, fair is pushing it a little but you understand what I mean. The more effort you put into something the greater the potential rewards.]
"True. So what do you need to do?" Madison asked.
[I need 200 D ranked mana stones, 5 Ice Spirit Essences and 1 Ice Heart.] Shiro replied.
"Hmm… I have quite a few D ranked mana stones that I can give you."
Madison pulled out a handful of D ranked mana stones and passed it to Shiro.
"Me too. It isn't much but it should help." Lyrica said, doing the same as Madison.
With the mana stones filling up her hands, Shiro wasn't able to reply to them.
"Think of this as payment. Not everyone can get a high levelled and experienced adventurer to power level them up. Therefore, giving you a portion of our D ranked mana stones to help you star up is only natural." Madison grinned.
"Yup yup." Lyrica nodded.
'These two…' Shiro thought with a weary smiled.
Storing the mana stones in her inventory, she pulled out her phone.
[Thank you.]
"Hahahaha, it should be me and Lyrica saying thank you to you. If you didn't appear in our lives, I would probably still antagonise Lyrica and perhaps, she might not have found out about her hidden proficiency this quickly." Madison smiled awkwardly. Looking back a few weeks in time, she was indeed a little petty for holding it against Lyrica.
She couldn't help the fact that her body movement was always awkward due to her hidden proficiency. On top of that, she wasn't able to get a lot of exp so her level was naturally lower than everyone else's.
Not to mention the fact that on lower levels, It doesn't matter since the level differences between 1 and 20 are small, they are just 'trials. Only after level 20 did the differences actually start to matter more.
Smiling at the fact that Madison accepted her flaws and was able to joke about them, Shiro was glad she picked her as a teammate.
"Alright, let's head out of here and eat our hearts out. I am starving after doing a hard dungeon like this in one go." Madison said, pulling both Shiro and Lyrica by the arms.
"Ehh? I don't want to eat my heart out though. I'll get fat!" Lyrica complained.
'Thank god I don't get fat.' Shiro thought as she couldn't even imagine herself if the mana stones made her fat. With the amount she had to eat, she'd look like a dumpling.
Before they left the dungeon, Shiro made sure to collect all of the elemental crystals.
"What do you need them for? Not a lot of people have uses for them." Lyrica asked.
[Interested about them. Now come on.] Shiro dismissed as she walked to the exit.
Upon leaving the dungeon, they saw that the time was still rather early.
"Wait! Why is there only three of you?" One of the people at the scene suddenly said.
The trio looked at each other before Shiro grabbed them both by the waist.
Yin Style Phantom Art: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom + 3rd Phantom.
Her body flicked out of the person's view.
"Wahhhh!!!!" Both Madison and Lyrica cried out in surprise when they saw how fast they were going.
Dashing over the roofs with incredible speed, they were surprised that hardly anyone could spot them.
Naturally, Shiro couldn't keep this up for long.
Landing not too far away from the dorms, Shiro let the duo back on the ground.
"Fuu…." Breathing out heavily, she calmed her heart rate.
'Seems like using three out of the five phantoms at once is still a little harsh on the body.' Shiro thought as she could feel soreness from her body.
So far, she had experienced using four of the phantoms. Illusionary Phantom, Speed Phantom, Counter Weight Phantom and Internal Feasting Phantom.
She hadn't had the chance to use the final phantom, the Soul Stealing Phantom, due to the fact that this phantom needed her to abandon all thoughts of defence. Trading blow for blow.
The 5th phantom was most suited in fights against humans and not monsters.
"Holy! Shiro! What the hell was that?!" Madison asked as she nearly fell because her legs were soft from the experience.
[Martial Arts.]
"Bullsh*t." Madison replied almost instantly.
She had never seen martial arts that allowed her to escape someone's attention as well as make people ignore the fact that a small girl was dragging two teens by the waist.
[No it's true. This is the type of martial arts I use. I used it a lot in the event along with fighting the boss.]
[If you remember, when I tanked the boss with you, I was using the 3rd stance/move of my martial arts to redirect the attacks.] Shiro typed out.
She wasn't surprised at her confusion since she too understood that this martial art was very advanced. Even now, with her memorising everything that Fei Ling demonstrated, she was still at a rudimentary level of understanding.
"Since it's martial arts, can we learn it?" Madison asked with slight excitement.
[I don't think it fits your style. I managed to learn it since I met the minimum requirements. If you performed the martial art incorrectly, it would cause more harm than good.] Shiro replied seriously.
Seeing how serious Shiro was been, they knew she wasn't kidding. Shiro, as a person, was very generous in their eyes. She never shied away from sharing goods or helping them out.
She didn't ask for compensation and helped them of her own volition.
So her warnings had to be taken seriously.
"Ah such a shame then." Madison shrugged her shoulders.
[Don't worry about it. You can easily develop your own fighting style. Madison, you've already started developing yours. Same with you Lyrica.] Shiro smiled.
[I'll go to the mage's association and get the ice heart. You two can head back first.]
"Alright. Take care Shiro."
"See you later Shiro."
Leaving for the mage's association, Shiro saw an off influx of people walking towards the blacksmith's area.
'Did someone make a good piece of gear or something? Why are there so many people.' Shiro thought.
Making a note to visit the blacksmith's area after the mage's association, Shiro thought about how she should scam them.
'Wait… it should be within my rights as the top ten to get the item. Why am I bargaining with them? I should be allowed it since it's my privilege.' Thinking of this, Shiro grinned.
Arriving at the mage's association, Shiro could already feel most of the eyes turn towards her.
Ignoring the strange mixture of gazes of fear, anger, delight, and surprise, Shiro walked towards the receptionist.
[May I order an item?] She asked.
"Yes. What do you need?" The receptionist asked. She didn't need to use the computer to know who Shiro was since she's been pretty famous amongst the mages in the guild recently.
She was in Rank 1 for people you don't want to piss off. The A*** Destroying Princess.
[I would like to order the item, Ice Heart, along with 5 Ice Spirit Essences.]
"You… want the item Ice Heart and 5 Ice Spirit Essences?" The receptionist asked just to make sure she read that right.
While the Ice Spirit Essences weren't too difficult, the Ice Heart was another problem. There was only 1 Ice Heart in the mage's association and it seemed to be in the possession of the branch leader.
[Yes that is what I wrote. I do believe that it is within my rights as the top 10 in the priority list to be allowed to order items that will assist me.]
A sly grin crept up on Shiro's face as she too knew the difficulty of acquiring the Ice Heart. Which was why she never intended to find it herself and instead let the mage's association find it for her.
"Erm… I'll have to get the branch leader for you." The receptionist said as she quickly left to pass this bundle of trouble to him instead.
Waiting patiently, Shiro didn't have to wait long for Mark to arrive on the scene.
"So it seems like we should discuss this in another room." Mark said whilst looking at the little devil in front of him.
[Sure.]
Walking to another room, Shiro sat down on a chair and crossed her legs. Resting Yin on her lap, Shiro looked at Mark and waited for him to start the conversation.
Taking a deep breath, Mark looked at Shiro.
"The 5 Ice Spirit Essences are not a problem. Which I believe you know yourself."
[I do.]
"But, the Ice Heart is a little harder to acquire for you." Mark said with seriousness.
[Yes, but that's only if we consider the fact that you find a second one. Don't you possess a perfectly good one in your inventory.] Shiro grinned.
Mark could already feel a pinch creeping up to his heart.
He still remembers the pain of her ripping the 30 ice cores from the stock. And now she wanted the only Ice Heart they had.
[Who was it that said, and I quote, "You get access to tomes, MATERIALS and skill simulations."] Shiro grinned as she had an amazing memory. She still remembers what he had said when she asked him about the privileges of VIP.
"Indeed I have. But, that only applies to materials you can get." Mark said playing it off.
[And yet you have an Ice Heart that you don't use. Therefore, it is a material I can get and it falls into my right of acquiring the material.]
"I may have use for it."
[No you don't.]
"How are you so sure?"
[Because if you did, you would have used it already. The Ice Heart is primarily used as a material to upgrade an elemental based class. You most likely acquired the Ice Heart for your dual element mage and yet, when you found out the elements you had were lighting and fire, you had no more use of the item.] Shiro typed out, guessing the situation from her knowledge.
"…Perhaps." Mark replied.
'SHE'S CORRECT!'
He had initially obtained the Ice Heart to become a fire and ice dual element mage. And yet, he had awakened lightning and fire attunements for his dual mage class. The sad part was that he couldn't use it for his next class up either.
All his effort used to acquire the Ice Heart was shattered with a single realisation of his attunement.
[Now. I imagine the other top rankers would not take it too kindly if they found out that they may be rejected of their privilege even though the branch master has no use for the item. Plus, I need it for a star up requirement so more reasons for you to give it to me.] Shiro grinned.
"Urg!" Mark made a difficult face as he could actually imagine that happening. The thought of losing benefits may cause unease amongst the priority list.
Switching between the faces of agony and helplessness, he pulled out an item that looked like an intricately engraved orb of ice.
"Just… take it. Take it and please don't come back." He said feeling his heart being crushed into several pieces.
[You forgot the 5 Ice Spirit Essences.]
"Urg! Here. Please just leave…" He said, passing her the items.
[Thank you. Don't worry, I'll come back after another 5 levels.] Shiro chuckled slightly.
'PLEASE DON'T COME BACK YOU DEVIL!' Mark cried out in his mind.
On top of the fact that he needed to give her the item because of his job, he also had to give it to her due to the order of his young master.
With the order of assisting her when he could, he had no other choice but to give her the ice heart.
The feeling of biting a chunk out of your total wealth for an item. ONLY, to find out you can't use it followed by the fact that you need to give it to a little devil; was a feeling that crushed Mark's heart.
It was just one scam after another. He entered as a normal man before leaving as a broken one.
Walking out of the mage's association with the items she needed, she was only short of 93 D ranked mana stones for her 3rd star up.
Walking towards Helion's shop, Shiro was rather surprised at how many people were gathered here.
By estimates, it was roughly twice as much as usual.
Walking towards the back door that Helion had shown her a while back, Shiro bypassed the queue and walking into his workshop.
When one of the customers saw her, he immediately froze up and dashed out the shop.
"Shiro! Honestly, this is becoming quite a love-hate relationship." Helion said sitting back on his chair.
[You don't mind the customer leaving?] Shiro asked.
"Oh no. I do mind. That is if they WEREN'T ASKING FOR AN ASS PLATE!!! I HAVEN'T MADE ANYTHING ELSE FOR SO LONG!" Helion complained, pulling at his hair angrily.
At the start of the new business boom, all was fine. But when he had to make several hundreds of ass plates that soon reached the thousands, he was getting a little annoyed. AND NOW, he literally made nothing else for so many days that he felt like he was going insane.
[If this makes things better, I want to commission a few weapons.]
"Tell me what you want and I'll make it right f*cking now." Helion said instantly, grasping at the chance to make something other than an ass plate.
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