Chapter 600 - Batros

For the next few weeks, Shiro and hr older self-spent it trying to make themselves known in the community.

Her older self would grab a few part time jobs and enforce her persona as a timid woman who was on the weak side. However, her charm would make her a great addition to restaurants where she worked as a waitress.

During this time, she had also spent it teaching Shiro a few tips on her skills that she could use when he returns. Most of them don't need to rely on the system but she had taught her a few that she could use in tandem with the system.

The main tip that she taught her younger self was to ignore the mana cost of most items and try to get a feel of the skill herself. That was because the system dictates how much mana is needed for the skill's written effect to activate and takes it from her mana pool. If she could get a feel for the skill herself, she'll be able to control how much mana she wanted to use.

For example, if she took some damage to her ribs, rather than using 30% of her mana to heal herself with Grace, she could instead decrease the potency of Grace but focus it around her ribs, lowering the mana cost of the skill and not using a charge.

After all, a charge of Grace was akin to a pool of mana that she regenerates every day. Just because she took a bit of that pool doesn't mean the entire pool is now consumed. No, it means that she can continue to use it.

Therefore, her main priority was to study how each of her skills function and practice how to control their mana consumption. In the end, the system is only a tool to help the process and not the source of the power. The source was the person who can activate the skill. Therefore, if they could control their output of the skill alone with their understanding, it would naturally mean that the efficiency and effectiveness of said skill would increase.

However, that wasn't all that she learned during these weeks. As she couldn't practice any of the things that her older self-explained, she had to make sure she gathered as much knowledge as she could. And one of them was on her nanobots. After all, she was still in the process of improving each nanobot so that her weapons and items that she makes are much stronger.

Comparing the diagram of nanobots that her older self-provided to her with her own, Shiro understood that the 'material' was completely different in the sense that the sturdiness and flexibility was on a whole new level.

When questioned about this, the older Shiro would only reply with: "Of course. That's because I've been improving my nanobots with every new material that I found in the new ages. When the age starts, the merging of worlds become more obvious and the materials found in different places become common. Through a constant process of recycling and refining, I can improve the base material of each nanobot. It's not something that can be achieved quickly but you can still take away each of the basic diagrams."

When her older self-suggested that she could take each of the basic diagrams, Shiro was a little hesitant since it means that she isn't going through the discovery process herself. If she was to take them, she'll be missing out on the inspirations that she could have discovered for herself so she rejected that idea.

So, in these weeks, she mainly focused on skill theory and the singular nanobot diagrams rather than the weapon blueprints.

Yawning slightly, Shiro rubbed her eyes and looked up from her tablet at her older self who was currently working one of her part time jobs.

She wore a grey shirt with a black tie, a black waist apron/skirt and a pair of black tights. Her snow-white hair fluttered with every movement along with her tail. She wasn't allowed to carry any plates as she was 'clumsy' and may accidently bump into someone and break something. Therefore, she was only allowed to take orders.

Despite her act of being clumsy, the older Shiro knew that she couldn't act like this always so she demonstrated a little bit of efficiency with taking orders. Naturally, she still got one or two wrong but the owners weren't too angry since she was showing progress. Plus, her presence brought in more customers so they were happy.

"Fu…." Breathing out slightly, the older Shiro hung up her apron and grabbed her coat. She had just escorted the final customer out of the restaurant and it was time for her to clock out.

"Good work today as usual. You're improving quickly." The manager smiled softly as he handed the older Shiro her wage.

"Thank you, manager. If you weren't patient with me, I wouldn't have gotten this far. Sorry for breaking all those things near the beginning." The older Shiro scratched her cheeks in embarrassment.

"Haha, that's fine. You've managed to bring in more customers in the end." The manager chuckled.

The manager was a demi human that had traits of a bear. Despite his old age, his physique was rather muscular.

"Take care on your way home." The manager waved as Shiro picked up Tia and started to make her way home.

During her walk back, she noticed that the guards observing her had decreased by 2, meaning her act had worked so far.

As long as this keeps up, she'd be free of guards in no time at all.

However, and this was a big however, she had to deal with her suitors that had appeared during this period of time. Most of them were easy to deal with but one of them in particular, was extremely annoying.

The main reason was because he had a rather sizable backing in this city and pissing him off may ruin a few of her plans. Normally, she would either poke or kill them but as she was 'Ori' right now, doing so would be out of character. Plus, it would also ruin her disguise.

Looking at the man waiting for her besides the lamppost, the older Shiro couldn't help but sigh internally.

'Ah sh*t, here we go again.' She thought to herself.

"Mr Batros, how come you're in the middle district at this time of day?" The older Shiro asked with a nervous smile.

Batros was a tall slender man with golden hair. His eyes were similar to that of a tiger's and black marks could be seen just under his eyes.

"Ori, I've told you many times now have I not? Just call me Batros." He chuckled as he started to walk closer to her, which prompted her to back off by a few steps.

Seeing this, the guards that were watching over the older Shiro furrowed their brows but did nothing just yet since they were only talking.

"I can't possibly do that Mr Batros. You belong to the upper class while I'm just a middle-class widow." The older Shiro replied with a shake of her head.

"You know that I don't mind right. Your husband is gone now, perhaps it's time to move on. Plus, if you come with me, I can guarantee that both you and your daughter live a good life. I'm a family man after all." Batros smiled as he flickered next to her and attempted to hook his arm around her waist.

Feeling as though a vein was about to pop, Ori 'barely' manages to move out of the way.

"I'm sorry Mr Batros. I cannot accept your kindness. I've been able to manage with my daughter so far. I want to stay loyal to my husband even though he's dead." Ori shook her head while pretending to look for a way to leave this place.

*Sigh

"Ori, a beautiful woman like you is rare. I'm being courteous here but someone else might not be as courteous as I am. With your appearance, some may decide to be more… brash and do something which causes you great pain. I can prevent all of it." Batros said with a 'worried smile'.

Seeing this only increased both Shiro's urge to kill as they wanted nothing else other than to just torture the f*ck out of this guy.

Taking a deep breath, Ori calmed herself down.

"I'm sorry."

Quickly turning around, she started to run away as the smile of Batros's face faded.

"Tch." Clicking his tongue, he narrowed his eyes and made a phone call.

###

"You know he's not done right?" Shiro whispered over.

"I know. But if he moves, I might have to get rid of my disguise sooner than expected." Ori narrowed her eyes.