Chapter 177 - Upgrade Requirements

[Class Upgrade Option Confirmed: Corrupted Elemental Sylph]

The reason as to why she chose this class was due to the fact that it gave her more diversity when compared to choosing Ice Queen.

Plus, as a Sylph, she will gain more control over other elements including her ice element. After all, becoming an elemental sylph meant access to all elements. Of course, 'all' as in the ones she could use. Glacial, Metal, Lightning and Shadow.

There was also one more reason for her choice. IF she had chosen to become an Ice Queen in order to reach the extremity of Ice, that means she would slowly lose access to her Metal and Lightning attunement which is needed for her Nanomancer Class.

As a class that she knew she could reach the apex with, she wasn't about to give up that chance. Especially since she had another option that she could choose.

[Corrupted Elemental Sylph]

Class Up Requirements:

[ 0/4 ] Tier 3 Attunement in 4 elements

[ 3/1,000 ] C class mana stones

[ 0/1 ] C ranked raid completion with more than 30% contribution

[ 0/1 ] Fairy Element Core

[ 0/1 ] Corrupted Demon Core

Narrowing her eyes at the class up requirements, Shiro couldn't help but wonder where she'll get the Fairy Element Core. Unlike normal cores that you gain from fairy's, the element core is a rare core that has an affinity with all the elements.

From her memories, the drop of this item was mostly random. Not only that, but it was also harder to procure since not many people see this item and even if they did, they would often keep this item to themselves due to the fact that it can boost elemental resistances.

However, the Fairy core wasn't the only troublesome requirement.

The corrupted demon core, much like the Fairy Element Core, is a rare drop that is gained through killing demon type enemies.

"Two extremely rare materials, a C rank raid and tier 3 attunements? Damn…" Shiro muttered.

"What's wrong teach? Are the requirements hard?" Lisandra asked as she chewed on the wyvern meat.

"I wouldn't say hard, just a little troublesome." Shiro smiled.

"Heh~ Then I'm sure you can complete them." Lisandra grinned.

"Of course, who do you think I am?" Shiro laughed lightly.

As she grabbed one of the meat chunks that Lisandra had roasted, she briefly glanced over her stats since nothing had changed except for her stats. She hadn't gained any more skills or titles after reaching level 30.

[Name: Shiro

Level: 50

Class: Snow Girl★★★★★ [+], Nanomancer

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

HP: 508,750/508,750

MP: 1,065,570/1,065,570

STR: 3350(+100)

VIT: 3500(+200)

INT: 7000(+750)

AGI: 4550(+450)

DEX: 4000(+100)

DEF: 1200(+100) ]

With her MP finally reaching the 1 million point threshold, she was able to unlock her Sniper Rifle Creation which was definitely going to be one of her strongest Nanomancer skills for a while.

"Say teach, I've always wondered but what do you keep in that bag of yours?" Lisandra asked as she pointed at Shiro's bag.

"In this? I keep my friend in my bag. She's just classing up right so she's stuck in this form." Shiro said, pulling out Yin from her bag.

"Your friend?"

"Un, she's a close friend of mine." She nodded while stroking the egg.

Placing it back into her bag, they chatted for a little longer before finishing their meal.

"Right then, we've got a whole day ahead of us for you to improve in using your Aura coat." Shiro said as she stretched out her body a little.

From the way things looked, she estimated that Lisandra should be able to become proficient in this by the end of the day.

Not only that, they also needed to go out hunting demons tomorrow for her to gain more experience along with EXP to level up.

###

Twisting her body, Lisandra grabbed the demon's arm before kicking it in the stomach.

*BANG!

The force the kick send the demon flying upwards as she crouched down.

Gathering her mana, she narrowed her eyes and activated her aura coat.

*BOOM!

Condensing into a thin layer of armour, she was able to enhance her physical attributes and launch herself towards the demon.

Her sword started to glow with a golden light as her eyes lit up with the same colour.

"HAA!!!!"

Piercing the centre of the demon's body with her sword, Lisandra twisted her wrist and caused an explosion of light within the demons body.

*Clap clap clap

"Not bad at all. Not bad. At. All." Shiro praised.

"Thank you teach. But I'm guessing that you're going to reprimand me now." Lisandra sighed as she sat down and waited for Shiro's evaluation.

"Hou? Seems like you want me to reprimand you." Shiro grinned as she created a chair for her to sit on.

Crossing her legs, she rested her chin on her hand and waited for Lisandra's reply.

"When have you not criticized me?" Lisandra replied with a weary smile.

"Well… You're right. Anyways, onto the criticising. First of all, body control. You were a little slow in exploiting his weak point. That's bad.

"In a high intensity fight, a chance like that wouldn't appear often so you much exploit it as much as you can. Second, aura coat. While the coat wasn't bad for your level, you want to be faster in creating the aura.

"When I was at your level, I would have been able to kill the demon much faster. Not to mention, I wouldn't need to chase it through the forest now would I?" Shiro said, gesturing at the damaged forest behind her.

"But teach is special." Lisandra pouted slightly.

"So are you. Your class is most definitely stronger than my class so there's no excuse. Plus, the only reason I say that is because of my mastery over mana and my own body. I can promise that if you were to train hard enough, you can do the same." Shiro encouraged. Naturally, she left the part about her title out since the monster title was truly broken.

"But are we able to do it within the time we're given? As you have said before, since the three generals are dead, war will break out soon. Are we able to get me up to standard before that time? Father, mother and everyone else is pinning their hopes on me. I don't know if I can live up to that." Lisandra sighed as she started to draw on the ground with her finger.

Looking at Lisandra who was starting to feel the pressure of having the hopes of everyone on her shoulders, Shiro couldn't help but feel pity.

As a person who had reached the 'apex' of her world, she knew what it was like to have the hope of everyone on your shoulders. The feeling that you MUST not let them down was like a corrosive poison that will slowly eat away at you.

If she just said "Ignore them." That would just be lazy since she understood Lisandra's predicament. She wasn't able to say no since she felt like that was the wrong choice. A choice that would abandon them and leave them to die.

One that wasn't befitting of a…

"Hero." Shiro narrowed her eyes as she looked up at the sky.

"Hero?"

"Un. What you're trying to be right now is a hero. However, it is also this thought process that's eating away at you. Lisa, I'll say this now. Hero's are nothing but a myth since there is no definite 'hero'.

"While you may have saved a few people and are their 'hero', someone else who perhaps had just witnessed their close one die wouldn't see you as a hero. Trying to force an excuse that incapable people made up onto yourself will only harm you and not encourage you.

"Therefore, as your current teacher, my advice is to not be a hero. But rather be yourself. Lisandra. You are your own main character."

"Same goes with other people. It's just that their lazy nature made them a bad main character. By accepting their expectations onto yourself, you're trying to multitask with several stories at once and the result of which would only destroy you slowly like a poison." Shiro said seriously.

"I guess…" Lisandra nodded slightly.

"As I always say, don't worry about it. Don't live with stress but allow yourself to relax. That's how you fully enjoy the experience of life. Plus, you also have your teach here don't you? I'll help you fight in your war." Shiro grinned as she pointed at herself.

"Say teach, how old are you? You speak as if you're an elder at times and sometimes like a kid. Plus, well your body's rather… Well… Let's just say that even I got more curves than you." Lisandra asked as she pointed at her own figure.

"OI, are you picking a fight with me?" Shiro asked as her smile twitched slightly.

"*cough* No I'm just a bit curious about how old teach is." Lisandra waved her hands hastily since she knew the pain that would come if she fought Shiro.

"Hmm… Body wise, I would be around 13/14ish?" Shiro said looking at her body.

"But mentally I'm an a.d.u.l.t." She continued, not willing to tell Lisandra her mental age since she's an 'a.d.u.l.t'. No more no less.

"Ehhh? I want to know teach's age not just 'a.d.u.l.t'." Lisandra pouted.

"Fufufu, remember this quote. Curiosity killed the cat. Therefore, I'm an 'a.d.u.l.t' got it?" Shiro smiled slightly.

Shivering slightly from the smile, Lisandra quickly nodded her head.

However, just as she was about to ask her another question, she saw Shiro turn her head towards their left.

"Seems like someone wants to intrude on our break. Hmm… A demon type around level 45? No level 50. Quite ballsy if I have to say so myself." Shiro smiled as she shook her head.

"How did you know the level and type of the monster? Also, shouldn't we attack it first before it attacks us?" Lisandra asked.

"I know its level through estimating the kind of reaction I got from scanning him with my own mana. As for how I know the type of monster he is, you can see from the shape of their body. When you scan an area with your mana, you'll pick up reactions of foreign mana which is in the shape of the owner. I can see that the enemy has horns, wings and an overall huge body physique. This means that the most likely outcome would be the fact that he's a demon.

"Give it a try." Shiro smiled.

"First, gather your mana into a small orb. Then, convert that orb into a pulse that sends a tiny wave of mana through the area. It should give you a rough idea of where everything is."

Nodding her head, Lisandra closed her eyes and tried to recreate the effect. However, she wasn't able to succeed even after a few tries, which frustrated her.

"Don't rush it. The demon doesn't know that we've already found him. Take your time." Shiro encouraged.

After a few more tries, Lisandra finally succeeded in sending out a pulse. Like a radar, her orb sent out waves after waves of pulses as a 'map' of where everything is slowly started to appear in her mind. Unfortunately, the pulses were too strong and notified everything near them of her presence.

"Now this is a good time for me to teach you about this as well. As you can see, if your scan is too strong, it'll warn others of your location since they can track your mana back to you. Much like the aura coating, you want to condense your mana pulse so that it's barely detectable." She said as she flexed her fingers. Ice chains shot out of the ground and wrapped around the demon.

"With decent mana control, you'll be able to do things like this."

Snapping her fingers, an ice spear appeared above her and shattered into hundreds of pieces of ice.

Morphing themselves into tiny ice needles, they shot towards the demon and started to freeze him little by little with every hit.

As the final needle landed on demon's body, he shattered into a cloud of dust as if he was never there.

"Tada~" Shiro grinned playfully.

Lisandra didn't know what to say since she literally just witnessed Shiro kill a level 50 demon in an instant.

Walking over to pick up the mana stone that dropped from the demons body along with the loot, Shiro shook her head when she saw a normal demon core as part of the loot.

'I suppose it wouldn't be so easy now would it?' She thought to herself.

"Any questions?" She asked as she sat back down.

"A few. Can you tell me the main areas of mana control that I need to work on so that I know what we're doing?" Lisandra replied since so far, she knew she needed to learn aura and scan.

"Hmm… The basics would be aura, scan, focus, defence and direct mana manipulation I guess. These are the foundations to all classes since they need mana in one way or another."

"And I'm guessing you want me to master all of them?"

"Yup. And I have the best way for you to tap into your potential and achieve them. Only question is if you're willing or not." Shiro grinned.

If anyone from her party saw her grin, they would instantly pale since they knew that grin all too well. It was the grin that promised a near death experience in the form of 'training'.

"I'm ready for anything you throw at me." Lisandra nodded her head.

(Author: No you're not.) 

(Editor: Run. Run, and don't look back.)