Chapter 130 - Level 45

They watched as the enraged Grydred attacked the other party.

Since they didn't know what Essence Unleashed meant, they decided to hide for now and see how it is. If the situation wasn't good even after Grydred killed the other party, then they'll leave as fast as they can.

However, Shiro knew about the status called Essence Unleashed.

'Grydred is definitely a strong monster. Since it has the capability to use Essence Unleashed, that means his previous level should be at least 200.' Shiro thought with a frown. Essence unleashed was a skill that is learnt when someone reaches level 200.

The skill Essence Unleashed would activate all the potential within the users body in one burst. Naturally, the result of which is severe weakness that can't be healed without at least 6 months of rest. This was always a last minute trump card that a person wouldn't use unless they knew they were going to die. Of course it also meant the damage caused to the surroundings are magnified by several folds.

*BANG BANG BANG!

Even a random gesture from Grydred was lethal never mind a full on hit. The group had to relocate several times in order to keep themselves safe.

Soon, they noticed the boss's movements slowing down a little.

"Seems like Grydred is running out of juice." Aarim said whilst peeking at the battle.

The casualties of a single use of Essence Unleashed had erased more than 80% of the other party leaving only the captain and a few other members.

"Shall we wait until it completely runs out of juice then?" Lyrica asked.

"Yup. Even if there are some members left from the other party, if they're smart, they won't pick a fight with us." Aarim smiled.

But Shiro had other thoughts. After Essence Unleashed ends, the user will be severely weakened. At that point, killing Grydred will be a piece of cake.

One of the main reasons to why she wants to kill Grydred is because the amount of EXP he gives will definitely be huge/ Especially since he powered himself up during the fight.

Aarim furrowed her brows a little when she saw Shiro glancing at Grydred as if waiting for a certain moment until it struck her.

"You're trying to steal the kill." Aarim said as her eyes widened.

"You know that if you mistime it, you'll die right?" Aarim warned seriously.

Shiro only grinned before activating Shadow Cloak. Her body was wrapped with shadows before fading from their sights.

"Seriously, how many spells and attunements does this girl have?" Aarim couldn't help but ask.

Shiro had demonstrated her prowess with ice, thunder and shadow. Normally, people will only have one elemental attunement. A few exceptional people will be able to gain a second one or like her, gain all five basic attunements.

But cases like her's were rare since she had spent so long researching each element along with frequent visits to the attunement hall in order to acquire all of her attunements.

Not to mention, she had also used some of her connections to get items to help her sense the other elements.

'No wait… She has a pet with her and I'm pretty sure that pet belongs to the shadow element. But that doesn't make sense. Even if her pet is that of the shadow element, it doesn't mea-. . . she shares skills with her pet." Aarim widened her eyes in shock. Not many know about the fact that people could share skills with their pets, which is due to the fact that this is only applicable to top tier pets. The only reason to why she knew was due to the fact that she had learnt a lot during the time she was being taught by the professor when she was trying to fix her damaged links.

Sighing heavily, Aarim couldn't help but wonder what Shiro's background was. Not only were her Mana Links broken, which takes some skill for it to not be lethal for her, but also own a top tier pet that could share skills.

Meanwhile Shiro, who was currently swimming towards the fight between the boss and the party, narrowed her eyes as she could tell that the boss was about to reach its limits.

As an adventurer who had seen the effects of Essence Unleashed several times, she knew about the perfect moment to hit the boss for maximum effect.

Taking a deep breath, she started to prep her spell now so that she could fire it the moment Grydred weakens.

Since she was using Shadow Cloak, they couldn't see the Magic circles that were forming around her body. She had to keep the magic circles close to her or else they'll see it and it'll expose her intentions.

Closing her eyes in focus, she started to condense the magic circles. She remembered what Aarim's magic circles looked like and started to construct her own magic circles using that as a basis.

'Now!'

Snapping her eyes open, she saw the aura around Grydred flash a little before fading away.

Shiro quickly clasped her hands together before pushing the circle towards Grydred. The magic circle sparked and separated into 5 identical circles that unfortunately only had 2 layers instead of the 3 layers that represent Tier 3.

Grydred looked at the magic circles that surrounded it in fatigue. After using Essence Unleashed, it didn't have the strength to resist any more.

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

Each of the circles shot 5 ice pillars into the body of Grydred before lightning sparked along it.

Separating her hands, Shiro formed a claw hand and aimed it towards Grydred. A yellow magic circle appeared in her palm as she twisted her hand to increase its intensity.

*BZZZ!!!!! URAHHH!!!!!!!

Grydred roared in pain as smoke and lightning could be seen all over his body.

*BOOM!!!!!

Chunks of meat shot in all directions due to the sudden explosion near the abdominal area.

Shiro, who was closest to Grydred at that moment, was slapped by a giant slab of meat which resulted in her being catapulted away.

Her body was spinning all over the place as she struggled to reorientate herself.

Frowning slightly, Shiro wondered what that explosion was. During her tumble, she saw the captain of the other party smiling slightly.

'M*therfcker stole my kill!' She thought in anger.

Flicking her wrists, ice shot out which in turn acted as a foothold to stabilise her.

Crouching down, Shiro jumped towards the captain with all her strength.

Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom + 4th Phantom + Shadow Cloak!

The captain, who was currently excited about the fact that he had just bagged himself a bunch of EXP, widened his eyes in shock when he saw the face of Shiro up close. She was currently gnashing her teeth in anger with slight signs of her eyes being bloodshot.

However, before he could even react, a silver light blinding his eyes.

*PUSHI!!!!

The party froze in shock when they saw the head of their captain fly off his shoulders.

Shiro, who was currently in a state of anger, glared at the other adventurers.

Flicking her wrists, the other three swords shot towards them with a silver glow. In a few short moments, Shiro took care of the survivors of their party.

"Haaa…." Taking a deep breath, Shiro retracted her sword.

'I suppose I can say I was just finishing the job.' Shiro thought to herself since the original plan was for Grydred to kill everyone before they stepped in. Not to mention, they had attempted to steal their kill first.

Even though she didn't get the huge amount of EXP from Grydred, she had levelled up once from killing the entire party.

[Name: Shiro

Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)

Title: Shadow Empress, Proficient Monster (108/500 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Incomplete)

Level: 45

Class: Snow Girl★★★★, Nanomancer

HP: 123,020/206,250

MP: 120,500/488,070

STR: 1100 (+100)

VIT: 1300 (+200)

INT: 3000 (+550)

AGI: 1800 -> 2000 (+450)

DEX: 1400 -> 1500 (+100)

DEF: 500 (+100)

= Title Bonus

Unassigned Points: 300 -> 0

Attunements:

Ice – Tier 2

Lightning – Tier 2

Metal – Tier 2

Shadow – Tier 2 (Augmented with Calamity's Will)

Balance: 310,130,000 USD

Equipment (Tap to Display)

Skills –

Snow Girl ★★★★:

Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath. Ice Field Affinity, Cold Illusion

Nanomancer:

Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 2, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation

Frozen Hell Series:

Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire

Ancient Healing Arts:

Fire of Life

Other:

Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Lightning Magic (Tier 2), Metal Magic (Tier 2), Shadow Magic (Tier 2)

Shared Skills (Yin):

Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1), Shadow Affinity (Tier 1)]

Seeing her level increase to level 45, Shiro smiled in anticipation since it was time for her final star up.

[Snow Girl ★★★★★]

[ - ] Enter the Truth Realm and Defeat your Shadow

"Truth Realm?" Shiro couldn't help but mutter at the unfamiliar quote. She didn't know the exact details of levelling up to the 5th star, especially since she was currently a monster, but she did know that it was going to be difficult. Otherwise people wouldn't have been stuck on the 5th star for so long that they even had to completely restart their level from 1.

However, seeing as the requirement was for her to defeat her shadow, she could infer that it was a quest to improve herself by defeating an identical copy of herself.

"Should be fun." She smiled. She always wondered what it would be like to fight an identical copy of yourself. Since they had the same experiences along with the same set of skills and stats, it would be the perfect moment to surpass her current fighting standard.

"I might even find some inspiration for new skills in there." She muttered.

"Shiro!"

Turning around, she saw the party swim towards her.

Giving them a small wave, Shiro waited for Aarim to explain their next steps.

"Well since Grydred is dead, he should have dropped two items. The items are Ancient Scales and Ancient Sharadon Silk. If it's ok, can I have them?" Aarim asked with a slight praying gesture.

Shiro nodded and pulled out several pieces of Ancient Scales and Ancient Sharadon Silk that she had received after killing the captain.

"Thanks. Right then, the next stage will be the treasure vault that was guarded by the now dead Grydred. Follow me."

Following behind Aarim, they arrived at a vault door at the bottom of the boss area.

"Was this always here?" Lyrica asked as she didn't see this vault door before.

"Nope. This only appears after you kill Grydred." Aarim replied.

Waving her hand, a magic circle appeared on the surface of the vault door.

"Alright, the combination of the vault lock changes each time so this may take a while."

The trio swam back a little as they watched Aarim slowly break the lock on the vault door.

Since she had nothing else to do for the meantime, Shiro flicked her wrist and created a foldable chair from ice and laid her body on it.

"Hey Shiro, can we have one as well?" Lyrica asked.

Nodding her head, Shiro made two chairs for Lyrica and Madison.

After a while of waiting, Aarim was finally able to crack the vault door.

"Gah! I swear, as fun as it was, it is annoying to do locks like this." Aarim sighed as she cracked her neck.

"Well let's go. Since we've unlocked the vault, we only have a few moments before it relocks and Grydred respawns." Aarim informed them whilst gesturing them to follow behind her into the vault.

"Are there any more bosses after this?" Lyrica asked curiously.

"There are but the things I need are at the start. All the bosses after this don't drop the items I need at all. However, if you girls are lucky, the vault should give you something that you need." Aarim smiled.

The group dived down into the vault and swam at a steady pace. They had to make sure that they were on guard in case of any unexpected surprises like an ambush from a party that arrived before them.

Thankfully, their worries were for nought since there was no one inside the vault.

"Once again, watch out. It's a no water zone." Aarim reminded as she flipped her body so that she could land on her feet.

"Haa… fresh air. Well, as fresh as it can get I suppose." Madison breathed out in relief. While they could breath in the suits, it was slightly awkward.

"Alright, look around girls. Anything that is glowing with a golden orb above it is something you can claim." Aarim shouted out as she walked over to the pile of loot and searched around.

Looking around, Shiro couldn't help but frown a little as the vault was slightly familiar to her.

'Where have I seen this kind of design?' She thought.

Walking over to a pile of loot, Shiro saw a golden orb floating above the pile and knew that there was something she could claim.

Shuffling through the pile of loot, her hands paused in shock when she saw the item.

"Mtherfcking Light hero!!!" Shiro shouted out in anger as she slammed her fist into the item.

[Aria's Lucky Charm – LVL 50 (Blue)]

A lucky charm from the world – Aria –. Records state that this is a statue of the Light Bearing Hero who saved the world. 

Will block a single fatal attack from an enemy. (Limited to level 55)