The sun started to set as the time for dinner approached.
"I think we have to head to the central tent to get food." Ava said while she looked at the time.
"We can go and ask one of the staff walking around, just in case we get it wrong." Christy replied peeking out of their tent.
"Or we can cook for ourselves. I have tools with me." Yumi said pulling out a wok.
"We could cook but I don't think we have the space to cook. There are tents not too far from us and I think it may disturb them."
"Indeed." Yumi nodded and stored her wok away.
[I suggest we should get the government food. It's free anyways.] Shiro shrugged which caused them to laugh lightly.
"Indeed. We should take what we can hahaha." Ava laughed.
"Yes. Same goes with the market. We haggle the prices down." Christy nodded.
"We should go queue up for food. Or other people will take it ahead of us." Yumi noted.
"You think they'll allow us to take the food back to the tent for the kids? The chances of losing sight of the kids in a huge crowd are high."
[I could look after them if you want.] Shiro suggested. She could also take this chance to eat a few mana stones while they were away.
"That would be a huge help." Ava smiled.
"Right then ladies. Let's go get some food back for the kiddos." Christy grinned and stood up.
[Lyrica, Madison, keep an eye on what they have. Take a few pictures of the menu and send it my way. I'll ask the kids what they want when you go get the food.] Shiro suggested.
"Alright." As the five of them left the tent to get the food, Shiro was sitting with the four kids.
"Um… Can I touch your hair?" Sophie asked shyly. Ruby, Lia and Kanae nodded as well as they were rather curious about Shiro's hair.
[Sure.] Shiro smiled warmly. She had a slight soft spot for kids as they were akin to little bundle of joys that were entertained by the simplest of things.
Naturally, that was only if they were good. If they were acting up, Shiro would be the first one to run away from the scene.
Sophie walked behind Shiro and touched her hair. It was cold and silky to the touch and was somewhat addictive.
Following Sophie, Lia and Kanae also touched it.
Feeling the duo touch her hair, Shiro smiled and chuckled lightly.
"Um… Shiro-nee, what do you do as an adventurer?" Kanae asked while touching her hair.
[Well, I fight big monsters, earn money and level up with my friends.] Shiro replied.
"Is it hard?"
[Yes. But I worked very hard before so now I have it easier.]
"So if I worked hard now, do you think I'll be the same?" Kanae asked with passion in her eyes.
'Hmm... why not?' Shiro thought with a smile.
[Yes I think that you can be the same. But, why do you want to fight monsters so much?]
"Because dad is happiest when he fights. I want to be happy like dad." Kanae smiled.
[You aren't afraid that it's dangerous?] Shiro asked, finding Kanae quite amusing.
"Dad always says that without danger, there is no progression." Kanae replied.
[Correct. I must say, your English is very good. How old were you again?]
"Um, I'm 10. My English is good because I was born in New York. My mum wasn't born here so her English isn't as good. I had to help my mum out sometimes as well." Kanae said feeling proud of herself.
[Clever girl.] Shiro patted Kanae's head as the other kids started to envy Kanae a little.
Shiro gave them a feeling of an older sister that they could look up to and play together.
However, Ruby was an exception even though she was a year older than Shiro. She gave them a feeling of a cool quiet older sister feeling while Shiro was the friendly type.
"Can you play with us outside?" Lia asked with expectations in her eyes.
'This reminds me a little of what I used to do back in my village when I was a kid.' Shiro thought as she remembered that she used to play with the other kids quite often.
[Sure, why not. But we can't go too far away from the tent. Otherwise, your parents will get worried when they come back and not see you. We'll only play outside the tent ok?] Shiro asked with a smile.
"Ok!" The duo replied with clear excitement on their face. The two had wanted to relax and play for a while but were a little scared due to the fact that everyone was being serious.
However, with the addition of a friendly person like Shiro they were able to finally have the time to relax.
Ruby merely glanced over at the three before looking back at her phone.
'So Ruby is the type to be on her phone all the time rather than be active.' Shiro thought before leaving the tent.
[So what shall we play?]
"Um… let's play tag!" Lia suggested.
[Tag?]
"Basically, we have someone who's 'it' and they have to have to touch another player. The person who is touched becomes the 'it' and they try to touch someone else that isn't the person who touched them." Sophie explained.
'Hmm… well this is a new game I haven't heard about.' Shiro thought. The concept seemed pretty simple, but seeing as the three girls are quite excited, she guessed that the game should be pretty fun.
[So who's it?]
"You!" The girls laughed and ran away.
Shiro chuckled slightly and decided to go easy on them. It wouldn't be fair otherwise as not only was she a level 37 adventurer, but she was also a monster that had double stats on top of her martial arts.
Jogging lightly, Shiro caught up to Lia pretty quickly.
"Ah!" Lia cried out with a laugh and tried to run faster.
Gently tapping Lia's head, Shiro smiled when she saw Lia giggle with joy.
The trio ran after one another for a short while before turning their attention to Shiro.
"Get her!!" They laughed out.
Grinning slightly, Shiro floated upwards.
"Ah! Not fair!"
"Shiro-nee! That's cheating!"
[It's not cheating. It's called doing what I can to save myself.] Shiro chuckled as she found teasing the three pretty fun as well. Although she did want to go easy on them, seeing their wronged faces were enough to offset the slight guilt of not going easy.
"Then teach us how to fly as well!" Sophie said as the other two agreed.
[I can do this because of a skill I have. I can't teach this to you.]
"Ehhh…" The three pulled a sad face when faced with this truth.
[But, there is a way for you to do this as well. You need to be good at studying and level up. When you are high enough level and can control your mana, you'll be able to make yourself float like I am .] Shiro replied truthfully.
"Ooo!!" The three had sparkles in their eyes as they looked towards Shiro with guidance.
"Shiro-nee, can you teach us?" Kanae asked with a bright and excited smile.
[I can teach you a few basics but the rest would be years of hard work along with training in dungeons.] Shiro reminded.
"Mum always told me to win at the start line rather than during the race. If I can get advice now and make a head start for myself, I'll be better than people my age." Kanae said causing the other two to nod in agreement.
[Well she's right. Knowing your basics early on is always good. Plus, this will help you defend yourself if you ever get bullied.]
Landing softly on the ground, Shiro started to think about a basic training plan for the girls. Since they were young, what she was going to give them is mostly to improve on their flexibility along with their core strength. With these two, they'll be able to form the most important foundations for a female fighter.
[First thing for you is to train up your core strength. Or in other words, to train up your tummy. This is so that you can move your body better in the air while also being able to support your body when you're hanging off ledges or other objects.]
"How do we train up our tummy? Do we eat more so that when we feel like it will burst, we stop and make our tummy get used to it?" Lia asked.
[No, that's how you get fat. There are several ways to do this and two of the easier ways for you are the horse stance and the L sit.]
"Horse stance?"
"L sit?"
[The horse stance is where you would pretend you are sitting on a horse. Make sure your back is straight, your hands positioned tightly at the side of your body. Your legs must be wide apart to give you a good solid base.] Shiro instructed as she demonstrated.
Her back was straight while her posture was perfect.
Watching her, the trio tried it but failed miserably. Their posture was wonky, backs weren't straight and they tried to compensate for bad balance by leaning forwards.
Shaking her head slightly, Shiro didn't mind since they were around the age of ten and beginners were all like this.
"Ah so hard." Lia panted as she didn't even last 15 seconds before falling back.
[In my opinion, the L sit is a lot harder. What you do is support your body with just your two hands while you lift both your legs up and make an L shape with your body.] Shiro typed out before demonstrating.
Making two ice blocks, Shiro demonstrated once more. Naturally, her posture was perfect just like her horse stance.
Making six ice blocks for the three kids to try as well, Shiro only laughed seeing Lia almost do a backflip due to the force she put into raising her legs.
The sight of a 13 year old training three other kids of almost similar height was rather comedic and brought a smile to those who were watching.
"We're back~"
The four of them turned around as they heard a call. Seeing the five of them return with several containers, the three ran up to their mothers.
"Shiro-nee is training us to be strong like her! If we do it right, we can float!"
"Yeah yeah! You should have seen it mum. We were playing tag and she started to fly in the sky."
"Hahaha, calm down. You can tell us over some food." Ava laughed and patted Sophie's head.
"Shiro… You're training them???" Lyrica asked with a raised eyebrow. One of her biggest fears for the world was for three more girls to abuse a certain weakness.
[Yes. Only on a few basic exercises to help them out in the future. I was going to teach them about exercises to retain/increase their flexibility but you came back before I could show them.] Shiro shrugged.
[Also, since you didn't send me a picture, I assume there wasn't a choice as to what we can eat.]
"No. It mostly a little from every food group and they give it in a huge pack of food. 1 pack per tent, enough to feed 10 people. And since we're near the coast, they have more than enough fish to go around." Lyrica replied.
[Well I suppose that does make things easier then.] Shiro smiled before pausing for a second.
In the time that she had been teaching the kids and enjoying time with them, she had forgotten to eat a mana stone while she had the chance.
'Hmm, I should probably leave the tent when they're eating the food. An excuse like taking a breather should give me enough time to feed myself.' Shiro thought. Setting the food down in the tent, they were rather surprised at how generous the government was. The food here couldn't feed ten a.d.u.l.ts fully, but it was more than enough for four kids and 5 a.d.u.l.ts. Excluding Shiro since she ate mana stones.
Her plan was only for her to eat one or two items before stopping.
They all sat down and started to chat. The kids were talking to their parents about the moments during tag along with what they thought about the training.
Shiro took a moment to step outside the tent and quickly ate 3 D ranked mana stones.
During this, Yin had popped her head out of the hood the moment she detected the D ranked mana stones.
"Hahaha, you little glutton. You appear the moment you smell food." Shiro laughed and handed Yin the Mana Stones.
Eating it with satisfaction, Yin tucked her head back into the hood.
'Coming out for food and going back in when she's full.' Shiro thought with a shake of her head.
Re-entering the tent, Lyrica had asked Shiro about her plans tomorrow.
[I'm planning to gather some information about the city first before any dungeon activity.] Shiro replied. By gathering information, she meant mapping out the entire slums area and scout around first.
This would make it easier for her later when she decides to go visit the black market. IF, she needed to go to the black market.
"I'm thinking of maybe joining a party to level up a bit first. See what it's like to be in a normal party you know what I mean?" Madison said as she knew how much of an anomaly Shiro was.
"Me too. I'll join you Madi." Lyrica said as she too wanted to see what 'normal' dungeons runs looked like.
[So that's the plan. I'll go scout around; you two go do dungeons.]
"Yup."
Ava, Christy and Yumi only smiled seeing the three talk about their plans.
Finalising their plans, they shifted the sleeping bags around to make sure there was a decent amount of space for each of them before falling asleep.
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