Chapter 160 - Water Spirit’s Heart Essence

'The corrupted Nix, a magic-based monster that has extreme control regarding the element it is attuned with. Basically, the water version of me.' Shiro thought whilst driving towards the location.

'Unfortunately for her, that means she can't do sh*t.' She grinned.

Arriving at the lake, Shiro saw that no one was around.

"Well that makes sense. No one would be willing to live next to a lake where a strong monster lives."

Storing her bike away, Shiro tapped on Yin's head and had her rest on a nearby tree since she wanted to receive 100% of the EXP that was awarded from a relatively high level monster.

Walking up to the lake. she sent out a pulse of mana to see if she could detect anyone.

Feeling a reaction from the centre, she knew that she found her target.

"No one's around so I can go full power." Shiro chuckled as she stepped onto the lake.

*KRRR

Ice started to form under her feet and created a small platform for her.

Walking to the centre, Shiro saw the surface ripple as water tentacles erupted out and lashed towards her.

"So we're starting already? Fine, this princess shall play along." She said smile and swiped her hand left.

*KRRR!!!

A blizzard exploded out with her in the centre and froze the water with ease.

"Come out." Shiro said casually as if this was just an everyday walk.

The water around her started to shift but the Corrupted Nix didn't show itself.

"Makes sense." Shiro chuckled.

Slamming her palm into the ground, a giant magic circle expanded outwards.

Frozen Hell: Ice Drake's Feast!

*URAHHH!!!!!

A giant ice drake clawed its way out of the magic circle and slammed its body into the water around Shiro, freezing them in the process.

"Not done yet." She grinned and put more mana into the magic circle.

Frozen Hell: Frozen Slumber!

*KRRRR!!

Ice started to spread out from her as it attempted to freeze the entire lake.

Naturally, she didn't allow it to freeze the entire lake but only a small portion since she knew the limits of her links right now. She wasn't about to reveal her weakness.

Understanding the danger, the Corrupted Nix conjured a giant wave from the areas that haven't been frozen yet and sent it crashing towards Shiro.

Shiro on the other hand, wasn't intimidated by the wave at all. Flicking her finger upwards, a giant ice wall was erected around her, protecting her from the wave.

The ice started to crack apart causing Shiro to frown.

'While my ice does counter her water, she can still affect my ice to some degree.'

Stomping her foot down, Shiro created a tall platform and launched her high above the lake in order to avoid the crashing waves.

However, the moment she jumped up, several water dragon heads erupted out of the water and thrashed towards her.

"Che, annoying." Shiro clicked her tongue.

Raising her arm above her head, Shiro narrowed her eyes and gathered lightning in her palms. Forming a lightning bolt, she twisted her body and threw the lightning bolt at the incoming dragons.

*BOOM!!!

A thunderous boom rang out as the bolt split itself apart to strike all of the dragons.

The water bubbled and started to evaporate. The dragons tried their best to reach her but fizzed away before they could even get close.

Tapping her necklace, Shiro stepped on the ascendant dream and launched herself towards the lake.

She could pinpoint the Corrupted Nix due to the mana signal she felt from the nix when she conjured the water dragons.

"There!" Shiro grinned.

Frozen Hell: Calamity Trident!

Twisting her body, Shiro grabbed the trident and launched it towards the lake.

Just to make sure that the Nix wasn't able to escape, Shiro followed it up by using ice chain.

However, the chains missed their target.

Narrowing her eyes, Shiro flicked her wrist and retrieved the trident.

Activating her passive to float above the water, she clicked her tongue slightly.

'The best way would be to freeze everything but I don't think my mana links can withstand that kind of pressure.' Shiro thought to herself in annoyance.

The main problem was actually hitting the Nix. Due to her being in a large body of water, she could be anywhere.

"Actually…"

An idea popped in her head as she grinned.

Since she couldn't strike at her accurately, she should just bombard the entire place to force her out into the open.

Naturally, the best element for this would be lightning.

Dismissing the trident, Shiro stood on her sword and gathered mana into her palms.

Two sets of tier 2 magic circles started to appear as they were bright yellow in colour.

Lightning would spark on the rings every so often as it slowly expanded in size.

Flicking her wrists, Shiro sent the magic circles into the air along with three swords.

*BZZZ!!

Lightning shot out of the first magic circle and coated the swords in a thin layer of electricity.

Taking a deep breath, Shiro controlled her swords to fly through the second magic circle which in turn empowered the intensity of the lightning along with the speed of the swords.

*BOOM!!!!!!!

As if they were streaks of heavenly lightning, the swords collided with the lake and sent sparks of electricity ripping through the entire lake.

*ARRGGG!!!!

Shiro could hear the Nix cry out in pain as she grinned and launched herself towards the source.

She could see a water spirit crawl onto her ice. Her body would flicker with lightning every so often, causing her to writhe in pain.

Looking up, the Nix saw Shiro and quickly tried to retreat by shifting herself into a body of water.

"Not on my watch!"

Activating ice domain, Shiro slammed into the ice sheet that she had created which caused ice spikes to erupt outwards with her in the centre.

One of the spikes managed to hit the Nix and started to freeze her slowly.

However, Shiro wasn't done. She couldn't risk the Nix's escape after all.

Pivoting on her foot, Shiro created several magic circles around her before pushing her arms out and enlarged them so that they covered the entire area.

"Ice Palace!" Shiro commanded as the circles started to rapidly absorb the ambient mana in the area.

*KRRRR!!

Large palace walls erupted upwards, sealing the location and prevented the Nix from having a chance of escape.

Standing in front of a throne made from ice, Shiro stared at the half frozen Nix below her.

Even now, she was trying her best to struggle.

"Futile." Shiro shook her head since everything inside the ice palace was under her control.

"You're in this princess's domain now, calm yourself so that you may have a swift death." Shiro grinned and raised her hand.

Rows upon rows of magic circles lit up on the palace walls as spear tips could be seen peeking out from the magic circles.

"Die." She said coldly before bringing her hands down like a queen commanding her army to advance.

*BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!

The spears shot forth like an unending tide of arrows and repeatedly pierced the Corrupted Nix who couldn't move.

The bombardment continued for a while before stopping.

Looking at the spear riddled body of the Nix, Shiro walked over to her and grabbed her sword.

Coating it with shadows that were augmented by Calamity's Will, she swung the sword down mercilessly.

After killing the Corrupted Nix, Shiro saw a series of notifications appear in the corner of her peripherals.

[Special Monster Slain: Level 50 Corrupted Nix]

[Awarding bonus EXP due to level difference]

[Special Item Gained]

[Self-made skill recognised: Frozen Hell: Ice Palace]

[Awarding 100 stat points]

[Level up! 47 -> 48]

"Lucky." She muttered with a smile.

Flicking her wrist, she thawed the ice palace and made her way back to Yin.

While she was walking back, Shiro decided to check the item that she had gained.

[Water Spirit's Heart Essence – LVL 50 Consumable]

Consume to gain a small portion of the Water Spirits Stats.

"Heh~ That's quite a rare drop." Shiro mused with a smile.

Just like how people could eat monster flesh, one would gain an essence from an elemental spirit that would give the consumer benefits. However, one would normally receive a normal essence rather than a heart essence.

The difference between the two was the amount of bonus they gave. Normal essences would give +200 points in the area the monster was most proficient in. In regard to the water spirit, it would be INT.

However, the Heart Essence would give benefits to all the stats. Plus, it wasn't limited to 200 points. If the Nix had allocated all her points to INT, that meant Shiro would get quite a substantial amount of INT.

But that also meant that if the Nix had barely put any stats into the area, the points Shiro gets would also decrease.

"Well it's better than nothing." She shrugged her shoulders before retrieving the Heart Essence from her inventory. Holding the essence in her hand, she saw that it was somewhat similar to a mana stone.

Throwing the essence in her mouth, Shiro could feel a foreign wave of mana pulse through her body before merging seamlessly with her own mana.

[Water Spirit's Heart Essence Consumed]

[+150 STR, +250 VIT, +650 INT, +100 AGI, +100 DEX, +50 DEF.]

Smiling at the bonus stat points, Shiro checked her stats.

[Name: Shiro

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

Title: Shadow Empress, Proficient Monster (231/500 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Incomplete), Ice Princess, Creator of Yin Style Asura's Path

Level: 48

Class: Snow Girl★★★★★, Nanomancer

HP: 350,570/350,570

MP: 548,100/831,600

STR: 2000 -> 2250(+100)

VIT: 2000 -> 2350(+200)

INT: 4200 -> 5300(+750)

AGI: 2600 -> 3000(+450)

DEX: 2500 -> 2800(+100)

DEF: 700 -> 850(+100)

= Title Bonus

Unassigned Points: 600 -> 0

Attunements:

Glacial – Tier 2

Lightning – Tier 2

Metal – Tier 2

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

Balance: 802,045,190 USD

Equipment: (Tap to Display)

Skills –

Snow Girl ★★★★★:

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

Nanomancer:

Nano Tech Engineering Tier 2, Bow Creation, Shield Creation, Melee Weapon Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation, Shotgun Creation

Frozen Hell Series

Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Calamity Trident, Ice Drake's Feast, Ice Palace

Ancient Healing Arts:

Fire of Life

Yin Style Asura's Path:

Phantom Path, Asura Sword Path

Sword Skills:

Refraction, Soul Sword

Other:

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

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 2), Dark Seraphim (Tier 2)]

"Two more levels to go till I can see what class up path I want to take." She muttered lightly.

Considering everything she had done up to her current level, she should be able to get decent class up options.

However, as she wasn't too familiar with how monster classes are determined, she could only wait and see.

'I know one of the options would probably lead up to Snow Woman. But I should avoid that since I haven't heard of anything pass a snow woman so it could limit my growth. The second option should be something to do with how I've performed up till now. I've mostly gone with guns swords so it could be something similar to a magic swordswoman but monster version.' She thought to herself as she tried to guess what her class up options could be.

'The third option tends to revolve around what my attunements are, skills and how I've set up my stats. The most likely option would be along the lines of a multi-elemental mage.'

Shaking her head, Shiro smiled lightly and looked for Yin. She could try to estimate all she wants, but in the end, she didn't choose what class the system gave to her.

"Yin!" Shiro called out as she saw Yin flying over to her.

"Thanks for waiting." She smiled lightly and gave her a C ranked mana stone.

*Chirp!

Flapping her wings in happiness, Yin scoffed down the mana stone like it was nothing. This allowed her to level up to 48, the same as Shiro.

"Glutton." Shiro chuckled. She preferred to enjoy the taste rather than to just scoff it all down.

Retrieving the motorcycle from her inventory, Shiro remade her motorcyclist outfit and pulled up her face mask.

Making sure that Yin was comfortable in her little compartment, Shiro did a complete 180 with the motorcycle and made her way back to New York.

Her expedition on killing two monsters had been pretty fruitful. While the Shifter didn't give her anything due to its low level, the rewards she got from Nix compensated her quite nicely considering the fact that she had received the heart essence rather than a normal essence. 

'Ah I should probably hack into the guild's systems once more and mark those missions off as cleared.' Shiro thought to herself. If she doesn't, people would probably waste their time going to the location for nothing.