Published at 2nd of February 2020 11:39 pm

Volume 3, Chapter 161 - Departing For Winter's Grace

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

Arriving back in New York, the first thing Shiro did was to make her way to the temporary stall the guild had put up to distribute requests.

Activating Phantom Path, Shiro sent a string of nanobots into the system without anyone realising. Editing the status on the quests, Shiro made fake proof to confirm that the quests were complete.

With that done, she left the area.

'Mn?' She felt her phone vibrate for a moment, notifying her of a text.

[Freya: Sorry about the late reply. We'll meet near the north entrance of New York tomorrow at 9am. I'll tell you about what we're doing when we meet.]

[Shiro: Ok thank you. But I want to ask, am I allowed to get one more of my friends into the faction? Her name is Silvia and she's a member of my party.]

[Freya: It depends. What level is she and what class?]

[Shiro: She's level 45 and is a healer.]

[Freya: Age?]

[Shiro: No idea but she's talented. I can guarantee it.]

[Freya: In that case, she'll have the same privileges as Lyrica and Madison if that's alright.]

[Shiro: Perfect. Thank you. I'll see you tomorrow.]

[Freya: See you tomorrow.]

Closing her phone, Shiro smiled lightly since it meant that Silvia could join them without any problems.

"Now once we pack everything up, we can go to the branch office of the faction." She mused to herself.

Arriving at the dorms, Shiro saw both Lyrica and Madison talking to each other.

'Seems like they're done.'

"Yo." Shiro greeted.

Turning around, Lyrica froze up slightly seeing Shiro in a different hairstyle, outfit and overall aura. It felt warmer like the kind of feeling a kind older sister would give.

"Shiro?" She muttered in confusion.

"That is my name yes." Shiro replied, tilting her head in confusion.

"If you're confused Shiro, I believe it's because it feels like you've changed into an entirely new persona along with your outfit." Madison shrugged.

"Ahh, I almost forgot I still have this outfit on." Shiro looked down in realisation.

She found an isolated area and surrounded herself with metal to make sure that other people couldn't see her change.

Changing into the new outfit that Aarim gifted her, Shiro unbraided her hair and let it flow freely.

Adjusting her aura back to what it was normally, she returned to the duo.

"Is this better?" Shiro asked with a shrug.

"Yeah it is. I swear, I don't get how you can adjust your persona so easily." Madison asked in curiosity.

"Hmm… well it's like when people get too deep into a role and they stick with it. I just maintain that sensation which makes it seem like I've always been like that." Shiro replied.

Her acting skills were all self taught from her time in the labs. She couldn't blatantly glare at the scientists with death glares now could she?

"Then what about your current persona?" Madison asked.

Shiro narrowed her eyes and stayed silent. A sliver of killing intents started to leak out as both Lyrica and Madison felt a shiver down their spine.

"Heh~ Are you that curious?" Shiro asked blandly.

Madison started to regret her question after feeling the temperature drop around them.

Even Yuan Tian started to become worried since he knew the kind of power Shiro could exhibit.

Flashing behind the duo, Shiro held their shoulders, causing them to tense up in fear.

"Hahaha, of course it's my real persona." Shiro had a sh*t eating grin on her face as the previous pressure disappeared like a gust of wind.

"Oh my god! I thought I touched the pandora's box then!" Madison cried out in relief.

"Ai, don't worry about it." Shiro shrugged and sat down.

"Though I won't deny that I have my own little secrets that I can't tell you." Shiro chuckled and put her index finger on her lips.

"Well it's only natural that we have our secrets." Lyrica smiled.

"Eh? Both of you have secrets?!?!" Madison widened her eyes after hearing this new piece of information.

"Why? You don't?" Both Lyrica and Shiro asked with a tilt in their heads.

"First, that's f*cking creepy when the both of you do it in sync. Second, no I don't have a secret since before meeting you two I was relatively normal you know!" Madison pouted slightly.

"Hou hou~ So you're abnormal now?" Shiro asked with a grin.

"…if having a hidden class is normal then yes. But if it isn't normal then no." Madison shrugged after a short moment.

"True that. I wonder if I'll get a hidden class when I level up." Shiro muttered whilst leaning back.

"Wait, if Shiro gets a hidden class, can't she basically destroy everything that comes her way? Of course she's already destroying everything that comes her way but like, wouldn't she dominate them even more?" Lyrica asked with a raised eyebrow.

They both looked at Shiro with questioning stares.

"What? At higher levels it's going to be a lot harder to kill monsters and humans that are multiple levels higher than you. It's easier now since the stat disparity between levels aren't big but the gap will get wider the higher level you are." Shiro replied.

"Then how come you can kill C class monsters around level 55 and 60 with ease?" Madison replied, throwing the ball back into her court.

"Well… experience?" Shiro shrugged. The truth was naturally due to her monster title that gave her twice the strength of normal level 48's.

"Bullsh*t." Both the girls replied at the same time.

"Who knows? Maybe I'm one of those people that reset my level to get better classes." Shiro shrugged.

"Then does that mean you're like a 100+ year old granny?"

"Who the f*ck are you calling a granny!" Shiro replied instantly as if it was a conditioned reflex.

Silence followed after her small outburst.

*cough!

"Well, I can say that I am definitely not older than you right now." Shiro corrected herself.

Her body wasn't older than them but her mental age was.

"Right now?" Both Lyrica and Madison questioned in suspicion.

"Hmm, how about I give you two questions to try to determine my current age?" Shiro asked, resting her chin on her palms and smiled playfully.

"Two questions? Alright. We'll discuss this between us first is that ok?" Lyrica asked.

"Go ahead." Shiro nodded.

After whispering to each other for a short while, they stopped and nodded.

"First question, are you older or younger than 13?" Lyrica asked.

"Younger~" Shiro chuckled.

O_O!!!

"Bullsh*t."

"Nope. It's the truth." Shiro said with a smile.

"…"

The duo paused for a second to think about their next questions.

"If your age is under 13, is it an even or odd number?" Lyrica asked.

'Since I'm not even a year old yet in this body, I would count as only a few months old.'

"It is an even number." Shiro replied.

"Is it 12?"

"Fufufu, no more questions." Shiro grinned a stood up.

"So she's less than 13 and her age is an even number." Madison muttered in confusion.

"So… she's like the world's most powerful 12 year old?" Lyrica asked, turning to Madison.

"I think so? I mean, she can't be 10 or less than 10 now can she?"

"… It could be possible. It's Shiro after all." Lyrica replied after a short moment of silence.

Little did they know, she wasn't even 1 year old yet.

"Now if you girls have finished discussing what my age is, we should go look for somewhere to sleep tonight. We'll be going to meet up with other faction members tomorrow." Shiro said, informing them of tomorrow's plans.

Shiro found a decent sized plot of grass that was perfect for a tent.

'We're only staying here for one more night, no need to be fancy about it.' Shiro thought whilst setting up the tent.

###

The next morning, the trio woke up rather early. For Shiro, it was normal but both Lyrica and Madison was a little groggy.

"You two should get used to early nights. Isn't that right Yuan Tian?" Shiro chuckled and looked towards Yuan Tian who stood behind them in a butler suit.

"Indeed princess. One should learn how to operate at around 6 hours of sleep on average and that is being generous." Yuan Tian replied with an understanding nod.

"Well one of you is dead already and the other one is the abnormal amongst abnormals." Madison rolled her eyes.

"Haha, I won't deny that I was dead once." Yuan Tian chuckled.

"Say, why do you call her princess? Also, Shiro, why do you address yourself as princess sometimes? Are you royalty?" Lyrica asked, curious to see if being royalty was a part of her background.

"Not really. I just call myself princess because of the titles I have. Plus, I like it fufufu~" Shiro smiled.

"I just call her princess because she addresses herself as such." Yuan Tian followed up.

"So it's just role play but he's taking it seriously?"

"Maybe~ Haha." Shiro laughed since they weren't wrong.

She did like the title of princess.

Before they went to the meeting point, since it wasn't time yet, they needed to get breakfast at one of the stalls that the public had set up.

Shiro just bought a simple sandwich that she 'ate'.

Looking at Shiro who was eating lollipops after just eating a sandwich, Lyrica and Madison couldn't help but warn her of her bad diet of living off lollipops.

"Nope. These give my sustenance." Shiro chuckled. She wasn't wrong, the only food that fed her was indeed her mana stone lollipops.

While she could feed directly off monster corpses due to them dispersing into mana, it wasn't as filling as mana stones.

Meanwhile, Yin was enjoying her C ranked mana stones off by the side, ignoring everything that was going on. With the amount of C ranked mana stones she ate, her level increased to 49.

"Well you're not gonna grow if you just eat lollipops." Madison replied.

"And you're saying you grew those lumps of fat because of food and not class upgrade?" Shiro retorted.

*cough*

"Mines a special case." Madison replied with an embarrassed cough.

Narrowing her eyes, Shiro eventually dismissed it since she was going to have a class up soon.

Madison sighed in relief seeing Shiro not do anything.

"Just so you know, if I don't grow up anymore in my next class upgrade, I'm going to rip those right off your chest." Shiro grinned.

"Let me enjoy my peace of mind longer please!" Madison cried out.

"But why would you want an adult body Shiro? You're younger than 13 aren't you? I would rather enjoy the moment." Lyrica asked.

"Well if I have an adult body, I can fight better can't I? My reach is absolute crap right now." Shiro said, stretching out her hand as a demonstration.

"Why is everything you think of linked to fighting?" Madison sighed.

"Because fighting is life. Live longer, survive, defend yourself and even simple things like feeding yourself in this world requires you to fight for it." Shiro shrugged.

"Well… she ain't wrong now is she?" Lyrica nodded.

They continued to chat for a bit while Shiro waited for them to finish their food. During the talk, the question of whether or not Yuan Tian needed to eat popped up. All he said was no due to the fact that he is now technically a monster and can live off mana.

As for how he gains that mana, he knows a few skills and techniques for gathering mana from the environment to sustain himself.

Of course, he stores it as a battery so that he can use it in times of need. If he was using mana like how Shiro was, he'll probably need to eat mana stones constantly as well.

Making their way to the gathering point, they picked up Silvia on the way there since she was coming with them.

Arriving at the location, Shiro was surprised to see a giant manta ray that had armour all over its body.

Around the manta ray, was Freya herself and a few new recruits.

The recruits were naturally charmed by Shiro on sight.

"You're here." Freya smiled happily seeing Shiro arriving with the girls. She couldn't see Yuan Tian since he transformed himself back into spirit form and had disappeared from sight.

"We'll be going to the closest branch of the main guild which is around a 5 hours trip north even with the speed of our mount." She explained.

"These are the new members that had been recruited along with you during the tournament." She said, gesturing at the new recruits.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Shiro and I believe I'm a guest elder if I remember correctly?" Shiro said with a smile.

Her voice was as if a bolt of lightning was shot through their bodies. A beautiful face paired with a charming voice made her irresistible for them. Of course, they didn't dare disrespect her since she was a guest elder. That meant she had the capabilities to take that role.

"You can talk now?" Freya asked with disbelief written all over her face. From what she could remember, Shiro was a mute and needed her phone to communicate.

"Yes I can. As for what happened, let's keep it my own little secret." Shiro chuckled.

Freya nodded her head and respected Shiro's choice.

"Let's go now. A 5 hour trip is quite long and we shouldn't delay it anymore." Freya said whilst patting the manta ray's head. It glowed with an azure light and enlarged its body to accommodate everyone on its back.

"So where is the branch located?" Shiro asked whilst hopping onto the manta ray.

"The branch is located in the city of Vericia. Also known as the mountain city."

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