Chapter 135 Scouting The Slums: Ivory Cobra P1
After spending the entire day with Kanae, which mostly consisted of just walking around the whole city and exploring some of the shops that they hadn't been too, they started to make their way back to the camp.
Watching Kanae's childish curiosity, Shiro felt like she wanted to just pamper her like an older sister.
And naturally as her 'older sister', she needed to make sure that her little sister can protect herself.
'I should probably buy some martial arts manuals or something similar.' She thought to herself.
Thankfully, she didn't need to worry about dangers since there weren't any auctions anytime soon. She could buy items without worrying about fighting people.
Thinking of this point, Shiro couldn't help but sigh at the auction system. Anyone who buys an item at the auction is pretty much putting their lives on the line. A risk they knew was there but still took.
Therefore, they couldn't blame anyone if they died trying to keep the item.
Shiro made sure that she warned Kanae about the dangers that she may have to face after she becomes a qualified adventurer.
However, she was still wondering about what class Kanae would choose.
"Um… I want to be a katana user." Kanae said after some thought.
'Ohya? A Katana user huh? I guess I can modify the blood katanas I got from the dungeon and give it to Kanae as an insurance I guess.' Shiro thought since she had no use for the katanas to begin with. She might as well put it to good use and give it to Kanae.
[Why Katana user?] Shiro asked curiously.
"It's because I love katanas. The legend around katanas are filled with wonder. I just wish that one day I can find a legendary katana that will cut everything with ease just like in the stories." Kanae giggled happily.
Patting her head, Shiro nodded her head slightly since it reminded her of her childhood. There were always kids that wanted to be like the adventurers and knights that had appeared in their village.
However, her dream was always just to live a peaceful life in the village. Even though she was curious of the outside world, she knew the dangers it presented.
'How I've changed huh?' Shiro thought in nostalgia.
If someone told her to live peacefully now, she would reject that thought since she liked to explore and get her blood pumping through battles. Naturally, a little killing here and murder there was always welcome.
Walking back with Kanae, Shiro sat on top of the tree and looked towards the city.
It had been a whole day but Lyrica and Madison hadn't returned yet.
If she had to guess the days they've been inside the dungeon, it would be roughly almost a month. On the other hand, she hadn't felt any changes from the tags she had left on their bodies which meant that they weren't in any serious danger.
Since they weren't in any serious danger, she was going to give it another days time. If they hadn't returned by then, it would be a serious concern.
"Alright, I need a training plan for these two days." Shiro muttered in seriousness.
She could narrow down several aspects in which her shadow was superior to her.
Number 1: Spell Casting.
Her shadow had 'better' understanding about her ice and were able to do more with the power she had been granted. Example being the spell she used to take control of all the ice in the area. Even the ones that wasn't created by her.
Number 2: Understanding of skills.
The shadow was able to use her skills to their maximum potential. Even with skills that she barely used such as the Cold Illusions.
And finally, number 3. She understood her capabilities.
Her shadow knew what she could and couldn't do. It was also that fact which allowed her to counter Shiro every step of the way and even have the time to construct a tier 3 spell which Shiro didn't think she could do.
If she didn't improve in these three areas, there was little to no chance of beating her shadow.
However, there was an anomaly that will allow her to beat her shadow without improving in these three areas.
"5th Phantom." Shiro muttered with a frown.
The unpredictable anomaly that will heighten her senses to the max and reach a stage normally not attainable by the normal human. Even her shadow wasn't able to use her 5th Phantom successfully.
If she was to gamble in the trial, should she activate it successfully, she would be able to overwhelm her shadow easily.
'But I'm not allowed to master it since it would mean my shadow will be able to master it as well.' Shiro frowned.
The fact that her shadow knew what she knew and perhaps more since they could demonstrate 100% of her combat potential was a hurdle that was almost impossible to beat.
Normal adventurers would be lucky if they could demonstrate even 60% of their potential while the talented and hard working would reach 75% to 80%.
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Even Shiro in her prime could only demonstrate up to 97% of her maximum and that was with perfect body control.
In her current state, if she was lucky, she'll be able to touch upon 85% maybe 90% if she really pushed it.
But the likelihood of reaching the famed 90% mark was going to be extremely hard in her current state.
"To beat a version of yourself that performs at 100% huh? No wonder it's the 5th star trial. Normal people, even if they managed to crawl their way to the 4th star, would be stuck at this point. No matter what they learn, no matter what skills they obtain, if they can't perform up to the 90% mark, they would never pass this chance." Shiro spoke softly.
"Hahaha… And even then, the 90% mark will only give you a fighting chance. Nothing more, nothing less." Shiro chuckled. In her attempt, she had reached around 83% performance and used her combat experience to guide her along the way.
Without these two factors, not only will she lose the fight, but she would also lose her important Anal V.i.r.g.i.nity.
Thinking of this point, Shiro couldn't help but cover her rear and frown.
"To think she would copy habits as well." Shiro muttered in annoyance.
Naturally, this wouldn't stop her from targeting the weakness.
'Since I can't rely on an anomaly like the 5th Phantom, I should aim to improve on the three areas. Tomorrow will be practise on Spell Casting and skill knowledge. The final day would be to familiarise myself with my body and try to perform up to the 90% mark.' Shiro thought as she finalised her training plan for the next two days.
While there was the choice of entering the dungeon to increase her training time, she needed to wait for Lyrica and Madison along with the fact that she wanted to keep an eye on the camp. If she wasn't here, the tent would be defenceless. While her little murder streak had caused the slums to calm down a little, it was only a temporary patch. It wasn't a permanent solution.
Sooner or later, they will retaliate.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro decided to go scouting tonight. She was going to enter one of the core areas that belongs to the factions and gain some intel.
Glancing at the time, she saw that she still had roughly an hour till sunset.
"An hour to prepare myself is plenty of time." Shiro smiled.
Even though her body was still a little sore and hurt around the joints, she could use the hour to heal her body further.
Looking at the emerald fire that flickered whilst healing her, Shiro couldn't help but be grateful about the fact that she obtained the combustion spell and had met Reyna in the trial. Meeting her had given Shiro the chance to learn this skill.
She decided to take Yin along with her since she might as well take this time to earn Yin some EXP should they be fighting people.
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Glancing at Yin's level, Shiro smiled slightly in anticipation. Currently, Yin was level 43 and soon approaching level 45. There is the chance that she'll learn a new skill at level 45 and hopefully, it would make Yin a more dependable companion in the dungeons.
After waiting for the sun to set, Shiro told Kanae that she was leaving for a bit before exiting the tent.
Pulling up her face mask, Shiro hid the bottom half of her face and created a hood to hide her hair.
Her body flickered for a moment before disappearing from her spot. In a single moment, she jumped high into the air from her spot by using a combination of Faded Snow Movement, 2nd Phantom, 3rd Phantom and Rift Walker.
Landing softly on one of the tallest buildings, Shiro brought up the mental map she created during her previous exploration of the slums.
From her memories, one of the factions were creating a drug similar to a drug dubbed as R-pike. The drug was potent enough to make level 50 addicted and naturally, the new drug would be just as dangerous.
The faction responsible for this was Ivory Cobra, the most dangerous faction of the three.
"If I aimed for the largest faction, I should be able to get more intel." She muttered, eventually deciding on targeting Ice Fangs first.
They had the best combat power along with the most amount of territory in the slums. Out of the three, she should be able to gain the most information from them. Of course this didn't mean she was going to leave the other two out. Oh no, all three were going to be investigated.
After all, she couldn't have trash running amok near her little sister could she?
Making her way to the territory belonging to the Ice Fangs, Shiro was able to avoid the look outs with her 1st Phantom.
Jumping over the edge of the building, Shiro quickly looked for an open window before flicking her wrist and sent out a wire made from nanobots.
Hanging just under the opening, Shiro used shadow cloak to hide herself before creating a nanotech sonic locator which used sound to show her what was inside the room.
'Three guards in total huh?' She thought. She wasn't going to kill them since it will create a domino effect and could render all the intel useless.
Reeling herself up with the wire, Shiro entered the rift and vaulted over the window.
Crouching behind one of the furniture, Shiro exited the rift and used Shadow Cloak to hide her presence.
Glancing at their levels, Shiro narrowed her eyes when she saw that they were only in their level 30's.
'I'm not too sure about my capabilities with Cold Illusion right now so I shouldn't risk it.' She thought to herself since she had the idea of hypnotising them with her skill.
Due to the fact that the skill simulated what effect she imagined, she should be able to hypnotise them but didn't want to risk it.
'I'll kidnap one of them tonight and use them for some experiments later.'
Entering the rift, she left the room with ease.
Making sure that no one was around her, Shiro placed the nanotech sonic locator on the walls of the building before letting it do its work to scan the entire building.
'Hmm… there are 2 bas.e.m.e.nts underground. I can probably find some info on the highest floor and in these bas.e.m.e.nts.'
Disassembling the locator, Shiro made her way up to the highest floor first.
Avoiding the guards around the floors, Shiro was able to enter the highest room with relative ease.
However, she saw that there was a person inside the room working on some paperwork. Not only that, there was also a safe next to him. She had seen him place a few doc.u.ments in the safe before locking it up.
Shiro frowned when she saw this since it would be easy for her to hack the computer system for the intel but physical copies were harder to obtain. Especially with the person next to it.
Furrowing her brows for a moment, Shiro had an idea and turned to Yin.
"I want you to Rift Walk into the safe. Around you should be a bunch of doc.u.ments. Grab all of them before rift walking back. Make sure you don't make too much sound inside the safe." Shiro whispered.
Yin nodded her head.
Her body flickered into the rift before flickering back in a few short moments. In her mouth was several doc.u.ments.
"Good girl." Shiro praised and handed her a lollipop. Yin smiled in satisfaction and started to enjoy her treat.
Glancing at the doc.u.ments, Shiro smiled when she saw that there were some times for shipments of -Cargo- written onto the pieces of paper.
Flicking through the rest of the doc.u.ments quickly, Shiro knew she had to return them before he opened the safe again.
"Can you help me put them back into the safe?" Shiro asked. Even though it was a question, both she and Yin knew she wasn't taking no for an answer.
Nodding her head, Yin took the files back before he noticed.
Before they leave however, Shiro wanted to see what the person had on the laptop just in case she missed something important.
Pressing her fingers against the door frame, she created a thin nano tech wire that slowly slivered towards the laptop cables.
Connecting to the laptop, Shiro closed her eyes for a moment and started to hack into the laptop without any of the protection systems noticing.
However, when she connected successfully and saw the tab he was on whilst writing doc.u.ments, Shiro had the sudden urge to flip a table.
'WHY ARE YOU WATCHING P*** WHILST WORKING?!?!'