Looking at Kuromi, Shiro quickly shook her head since they could talk later. If anything, they needed to survive this fall since for some odd reason, she couldn't access her mana.
"Kuromi, you got any ideas on how to get down safely?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"Hmm… not exactly. To be honest with you, I don't really understand what's going on. I shouldn't even be visible to you much less be here in physical form. Not only that, this trial realm is quite strange. It's filled with an energy similar to mana but we can't seem to access it." Kuromi analysed.
"Tch, Kuro, grab onto me." Shiro called out as Kuromi nodded.
"Just so you know, my name is Kuromi and not Kuro. Sure it might be amusing for us to be known literally as black and white but I would prefer to be called my full name or rather, my surname if possible."
"Sure whatever Kuro. However, I do feel like we have bigger problems at hand." Shiro replied while looking around for anything that she could use to help decrease her momentum.
Unfortunately for her, the sharp cliff was all she could see and if she was to try to grab onto the ledge right now but since they were in a trial where mana is inaccessible, her physique may have changed as well so doing so might just tear her arm out of her sockets.
But if they were to just jump into the water, the impact may shatter a few bones instantly due to the height of their falls.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro looked down and saw that her outfit had changed as well. Right now, she wore a simple white dress that was a little ragged and dirty. She also had a pair of brown boots that seemed to have been worn out over a long period of time.
'Why the hell does Kuromi get her outfit while mine is trashed???' Shiro thought in annoyance.
Quickly shaking the thoughts from her head, Shiro shifted her body so that she would slowly close the gap between her and the cliff.
Curious as to what Shiro was planning, Kuromi watched with interest.
"You better hope that my limbs aren't torn off for this." Shiro gritted her teeth.
Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the side of the mountain and stomped her foot down as hard as she could.
*KRRRRRRR!!!!!
Rock and gravel broke off from the side of the cliff face as Shiro held her breath in order to concentrate on summoning more strength.
With their momentum and the added weight of Kuromi, she was only able to decrease their speed by a little.
After a few moments, Shiro let go of the cliff and prepared to dive into the water since her hand had sustained quite a bit of damage as blood smeared against the cliff walls.
Shifting her body so that it was as streamlined as possible with Kuromi next to her, Shiro prepared for impact.
*SPLASH!!!
Crashing into the water, Shiro could feel the bones on her arms fracture from the initial impact. Thankfully, her pain tolerance made this feel just like a small ache as she quickly swam out of the lake.
Standing up, she looked around in wariness as Kuromi did the same.
"You might want to sort out your bleeding first just in case the scent attracts some beasts." Kuromi said seriously.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Shiro didn't hesitate to rip a few strips from her ragged skirt and tie it around her wounds while Kuromi stood watch.
During this, she noticed that she had damaged her boots quite a bit since she did use them to help her decrease their falling speed.
After dressing her wounds, she looked back at Kuromi who is now sitting in a tree while peering into the forest.
"For now I think we're good. Though I can't guarantee anything since I'm a bit limited with my tools right now." Kuromi said while looking towards Shiro.
"Well that will do for now I suppose. In the meantime, why don't we have a small chat and sort our bearings out." Shiro suggested while climbing onto the same branch.
"Sure but first, I need to let you know that I don't have access to the system. I'm literally only here in physical form."
"Hmm…. That's a little troublesome but nothing I can't work with." Shiro nodded before checking her system and looked for notes about the trial.
[Celestial Immortal Trial
Current background: Twin sisters of a fallen household. Due to the pursuit of enemies, you ran into the forest but were knocked unconscious near a river.
Waking up while in a falling motion, you managed to land into the lake with your sister safely but at the expense of injuring your hands. You now find yourself in an unfamiliar forest alone with your sister.
In this surrounding filled with mystical energy that is different to mana, you find yourself handicapped and stripped bare of your original skills in this world.
To pass this trial, you must fulfil certain conditions and resolve the main 'corruption' within this realm. If not completed within a certain amount of time, you will fail and be sent out of this realm.]
After reading out the description to Kuromi, she then tried to see if she still had access to her mana realm.
Unfortunately, it seemed to have been blocked by a veil of sorts so she knew that the system wasn't joking when it said that she was now stripped bare of her original skills.
"Right then, I can see two of the conditions we need to pass and one that I'm not too sure about. The first is to harness this energy around us and the second is to solve whatever major thing is happening in this world. These two are obvious. The third is probably something to do with our fallen household." Kuromi said while holding three fingers up.
"Mn... Since that's the case, then there are likely still pursuers within this forest. Not only that, I doubt we can learn this energy quickly so our best option is probably to find something out in a nearby city. We might also get some more information about our current identity as twin sisters as well since the trial description is limited." Shiro nodded.
"Good choices. How do you want to delegate the tasks? With your hands right now, I'd say that I'll probably be the one responsible for collecting some food for us while you make some weapons with your spare hand." Kuromi smiled.
"That should be doable." Shiro nodded.
After going into a little more detail on what they were going to do, Kuromi jumped off the branch and started to go further into the forest while Shiro looked at her back.
'She seems quite serious for our current situation. The first thing she did is not converse to me about our pasts but rather focus on trying to understand our surroundings as much as possible.' Shiro mused to herself since that's probably what she would have done if not for the fact that Kuromi following in with her is clearly abnormal.
However, at the same time, that was something that can be discussed once they have food and shelter.
Jumping down from the branch, Shiro looked around for some materials to help them make some weapons such as spears or daggers. Makeshift ones anyways.
While she was looking for hard stones that could double as a blade after some sharpening, her mind couldn't help but drift back to what she had read before entering the trial.
'So fragmented soul is one of the reasons that the difficulty has been raised huh? Since Kuromi is in here with me, I can only assume that it's because we were in the same body only with me being in control. I suppose that can also explain why she can't access the system but am I still doing this trial solo? But since both mine and Kuromi's souls are fragmented, together we technically make one person so it should count I believe?' Shiro wondered to herself.
While she was wondering to herself, Kuromi was sneaking closer to one of the animals she could see in the forest.
It was a rather large snake that seemed to be trying to digest one of its preys that it had been eating earlier. With its size it could wrap around her torso quite easily, she figured that it should be able to feed both of them for a single meal.
Narrowing her eyes, Kuromi leapt into action since the longer she waited, the less initiative she'll have.
The first thing she wanted to do was to get rid of its main weapon so she had prepared a rock in her hand before attacking.
Using her spare hand to grab the head, she slammed the rock into its mouth while the snake's body writhed around in pain. In an attempt to fend off its attacker, the snake tried to wrap around Kuromi's body.
However, Kuromi was long prepared for this.
Stomping down on its body, she gathered strength in her arms and twisted the neck as hard as she could.
*CRACK!
Hearing the cracking of the bone, Kuromi grinned as she jammed her heel into the broken part of the neck and ripped the head right out of its socket.
Keeping the head so that they might be able to harvest some venom, she made her way to Shiro with the corpse as their dinner.