Chapter 382 - Hidden City

Twirling her dagger and looking at the corpse of what was an alive and well Snow Woman, Shiro waved her hand and collected it without a second thought.

However, she had a serious expression on her face. From what she had learnt from that Snow Woman, it seemed like the current situation was more troublesome than what she had estimated.

Apparently, the supposed queen of the Snow Woman had managed to forcefully create a dungeon/portal from their world to this one without the restrictions the dungeon would normally impose.

Currently, they're working on improving the portal so that higher level beings from their world can travel over.

Normally, their queen wouldn't be able to come over but she had used a proxy and taken over their body in order to work on the portal.

"Hmm… this is troublesome isn't it Lisa?" Shiro asked with a shake of her head.

'To think that they're actually able to forcefully make a dungeon and ignore it's rules…. What level would the queen need to be in order to do this?' She mused to herself.

{I don't think it's because of her level Shiro. There's something fishy about this.} Nimue replied with a serious expression.

From her knowledge of how queens of each race function, there were none that allowed them to open portals to other worlds.

'Maybe. But it is also a fact that you can travel across worlds once you reach tier 7 demi-god.' Shiro replied with a shrug.

{Wai, there's a tier 7 demi-god? How did you know about that?} Nimue tilted her head in confusion.

'I learned it from a light goddess that I bumped into during one of my past quests. But in seriousness, if our enemy is someone that is potentially a tier 7 demi-god, this would be quite bad you know?'

{Hmm… true…} Nimue nodded before going silent. She had to think about how she could help out in the current situation.

Returning her focus back to reality, Shiro saw that Lisandra was currently looking at the half broken experimental armour.

"Seems like you quite like the new armour that I created." Shiro smiled.

"Mn. It's very handy and the fact that I can use your attunements despite not having them for a short moment is amazing." Lisandra replied.

"I see, though it seems like I haven't made enough progress with the research volumes so they're not exactly reusable. I'll make some improvements when I can but for now, I'll give you a few more ch.i.p.s for you to use later." Shiro said while dismantling the half broken armour.

Flexing her fingers, she created three more armour ch.i.p.s and handed it over to her.

Only use it when we're in danger when we go to the city. It'll be our escape tool." Shiro reminded while Lisandra nodded her head.

"Good. Welp I should drop this illusion now since it would be weird for us to stand in one place while not doing anything."

Flicking her arm, the illusion shattered apart as Shiro looked towards the closest adventurer party and gave them a smile before leaving towards where the city should be.

Seeing this smile, the parties knew that they had been fooled by an illusion and quickly reported to the observer team.

###

"Hmm… an annoying variable has appeared. This Shiva and Lycoris pair seemed to be at odds with the monsters that have appeared here. Are they natural monsters that know what's happening here?" A man muttered while looking through video recordings and reports on the situation.

Massaging his eyes, he frowned before sending a message to the guild master.

[Request to send the most powerful B class adventurers to track down the two monsters. Snow Woman Shiva and Angelic Maiden Lycoris.]

After a moment of waiting, he received her reply.

[Request Approved.]

Smiling slightly, he sent a message to the highest levelled B ranked adventurers and had them go to Mount Fuji.

###

Continuing her walk to the city, there had been a few Snow Women that tried to force her to come with them but Shiro killed them without hesitation due to their attitudes.

"Hmm… we should be near the entrance now. Though I'm not sure we're allowed entrance since we've killed quite a few Snow Women." Shiro said with a smile.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. After all, it's not as if you've delayed the visit now have you? You just took care of a few trash along the way." Lisandra chuckled.

Crouching down, Shiro pressed her fingers against the ground and tried to sense where the entrance was.

Due to her high natural affinity to ice related elements, she could 'see' the entire area that was covered with snow in full detail.

Following the instructions that she had so 'politely' inquired from the Snow Woman, Shiro soon found the entrance to the city.

Located in a hidden cave within Mount Fuji, they had essentially hollowed out the mountain for their city.

Standing back up, Shiro patted her skirt and made her way to the entrance with Lisandra following not too far behind.

While this was happening, all of the low levelled B ranked adventurers had left the mountain range due to the emergency announcement of two boss type monsters appearing in the area. All that remained were those higher than level 130.

Of course, Shiro wouldn't know of such a thing. All she knew right now was that the average level of snow women in the city was around 120 to 140 while the average level of adventurers that have appeared in the mountain range was 110.

Upon arriving at the entrance, Shiro immediately detected a few hostile glares from what seemed to be gatekeepers. However, she couldn't see them and all she could see was just a normal stone wall.

"What, no welcome party? That's rather rude to a guest that was invited by your queen." Shiro chuckled while activating her skill, analysis.

Peering past the stone wall, she could see four powerful mana signatures that seemed to suggest that they were around level 125.

"There are no welcome parties since you've killed them all have you not?" One of the Snow Women sneered.

"Well, when you greet with sh*t, you receive sh*t no?" Shiro retorted.

"Anyways, if you delay this, would your queen be displeased about the lateness of my arrival?"

"Tch, open the entrance." The Snow Woman clicked her tongue.

Suddenly, the wall dissolved into a layer of snow as Shiro could see four snow women with spells ready so that they can attack her should she show hostile intent.

"Calm down, I'm not dumb enough to attack in your city…" Shiro smiled and walked towards them.

However, just as she was around 3 meters from them, her mana flared as an array of ice weapons surrounded the four in an instant.

"Or am I?" She grinned.

Feeling her hostility and killing intent up close the four realised that they couldn't move their bodies at all from fright.

Silence reigned the area for a short moment before it dissolved into thin air.

"I'm kidding~ You're lucky I'm in a good mood right now." Shiro waved her hand before proceeding into the city.

Watching the two enter the city, the four fell back onto the floor and panted in fear.

"Send a message to everyone in the city, if you can, don't even approach her!" The first shouted out while trying to get back onto her feet.

###

Walking through the city, Shiro saw that there was a lack of infrastructure other than a few houses and some places for the snow woman to practise their skills and consume more mana to level up.

There were floating orbs of light that kept the city bright despite it being inside a mountain.

Losing interest in the society and living condition of snow women instantly, Shiro made a beeline to the castle in the centre of the city.

Created from opaque ice, the castle stood proud in the centre. The sheer size of the castle was quite daunting but Shiro had seen and made bigger, so it didn't really affect her.

Opening the gate for her, the snow women bowed and tried not to attract her attention.

As she continued through the hallway, she soon arrived at the main hall.

Sitting on a throne of ice, a mature and beautiful woman with ice white hair had a soft smile on her face while looking at Shiro.

"I welcome you to my current kingdom. While your tag says that you are part of my race, as a queen, I can tell otherwise oh queen of the spirits."