Chapter 687 - Information on the Minotaur

Waking up with a slight frown, she glanced at the sky and saw that it was still early morning.

However, despite the fact that it was early morning, she was currently surrounded on all sides by giant muscular mole rats of sorts.

Seeing their flabby exposed skin for the first thing in the morning wasn't exactly pleasing for Shiro as she sighed and massaged her eyes.

Raising her hands, she swiped down on them but nothing happened.

"???" Blinking her eyes for a moment, she face palmed as she forgot she wasn't able to create swords anymore. With the feeling of energy in her body, she thought she could summon her blades.

"Urg… see what you've done? Being rudely awoken by you guys made me remember that I only have a bow right now. Che, if it was back on Earth blades would have pierced through you right now." Shiro yawned and stood up.

Normally, the giant mole rats would have attacked her by now but they were frozen in place by the large amount of killing intent she was releasing right now. If she still had her passive that could freeze the surroundings, the entire area would have become a frozen tundra by now.

Stretching her body, Shiro glared at the closest mole rat and summoned her bow.

"Well I suppose you guys and act as my morning workout to wake me up." She said and pulled back on her bow.

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Looking at the small mountain of five corpses, Shiro cracked her neck and sighed.

"Hmm… my body's been kinda stiff lately. Though I suppose I haven't really taken the chance to relax my body I guess." Shiro muttered while doing a quick massage on her shoulders.

'I wonder if the girls are good at massages. I'm not really keen on letting someone else touch me regardless of gender.' She mused to herself before glancing at the corpses.

Looking at their flabby skin, Shiro wasn't the most excited about using them as a source of food but breakfast was needed in the end.

But the unfortunate thing was that she no longer had a bladed weapon she could use to cut up the monsters so her only choice was to sell the monster to get some money.

Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to see if there were any bounties relating to these mole rats. If there was, she could use it to make some quick cash.

Hiding the corpses so that no one could take them away from her, she made her way back to the city.

Making sure that she was as stealthy as possible since she didn't know if Kiona and Melody were still nearby, she walked through the city without attracting attention.

Arriving at the Mercenary Hall with ease, Shiro glanced towards the bounty board and saw that for giant mole rats near the city was only around 10 silvers each due to their quick reproduction along with the dangers they hold against normal people. They're quite fearless and would even hunt near the gates of the city.

Walking up to the reception, Shiro waited until it was her turn.

"Hello how may I help?" The receptionist asked with a smile.

"I was attacked by 5 of those giant mole rats. I can't bring their body here but I know where it is." Shiro replied.

"I see, I'll call for a higher ranked staff to verify this with you and he can give you the silver after you verified this." The receptionist nodded. 

Gesturing for Shiro to wait for a moment, she left the counter.

After a short while, she returned with a serious looking man with a small note pad.

"Please show this man where you left the corpses and he shall pay you accordingly." The receptionist smiled.

Nodding her head, Shiro started to leave while the man followed behind her.

Walking through the city, she could tell that this man didn't want to talk at all and was only focused on the serious task at hand which she was rather grateful for.

Arriving outside the city, she showed him where she had hidden the corpses.

"Hmm… Do you have a bow on you? There are signs of arrow wounds but I see no bow." The man asked while glancing back at her.

"I do." Shiro nodded and summoned Artemis' Bow.

Raising his eyebrow in slight surprise, the man started to check up on the remaining corpses before nodding his head. 

"As promised, each mole rate is worth 10 silvers. There are 50 silvers in this pouch." He said while handing her a rather hefty pouch.

"Thank you." Shiro took the pouch and started to make her way back to the city.

Checking the money so that she wasn't ripped off, she nodded in satisfaction when she saw that there was indeed 50 silvers.

"I should get myself something to eat first then see if the blacksmith lady is there. Its' still rather early after all." Shiro muttered while glancing up at the sky. The sun had barely risen as the morning glow slowly pushed away the night sky.

Looking around for a place where she could get some breakfast this early on, she could only find inns that sold food this early.

Choosing the inn where she didn't break the door off, she paid for a cheap but filling meal.

After the meal, she saw that the blacksmiths still needed a while to open up so she decided to take a quick stroll around the city.

With how early she was, not many of the stores were open but surprisingly, the library was open so she entered to find some information on Minotaurs.

"Ah welcome back. Seems like you had some luck with your first Divinity, did you succeed with Nike's trial? You did ask for her information last time."

Glancing toward the source of the voice, Shiro saw that it was the same woman as the last time she was here.

"Mn, thank you for your help." Shiro nodded with a smile.

"Haha, don't thank me it was the books that helped you." The woman chuckled.

"And you helped me find the books. Without your intervention, I might not have found them." Shiro shook her head.

"My my, I suppose it'll be rude of me not to accept your thanks then. So what books are you looking for today?" The woman asked with a soft smile.

"Minotaur's please."

"Understood. Please wait for a moment."

Summoning a butterfly like last time, the woman commanded it to lead Shiro to the required books about Minotaurs.

"Also, seen as though you're looking for information on Minotaurs, may I take it as you're going for the Minotaur bounty from the Mercenary Hall?"

"I am indeed." Shiro nodded her head.

"Then you might want to be careful as the Section of Life is not exactly kind against those that took a life within the section. Even though the area is quite far from the centre where the influence of Gaia's tower is highest, the forest will still attack you if you kill the Minotaur. If you can, try to bring it to the Section of Air I suppose." The woman reminded.

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind." Shiro replied with a smile.

Following after the butterfly, Shiro arrived at the third floor and saw that there were quite a few books on Minotaurs. Since she only wanted some information on its combat style and abilities, she skipped the ones that talked about his history.

While she did spend a few hours fighting it and it only showing brute force along with the labyrinth, she wanted to make sure that it didn't have any more skills up his sleeves.

Checking through his information, she was rather surprised to see that the Minotaur indeed had something up his sleeves. However, the funny thing was that due to her low power, she wasn't able to trigger his ability.

When the Minotaur takes a huge amount of damage in an instant or in close succession, he'll be able to activate a rage like state where his physical parameters increase dramatically in order for him to hunt down the one who did this to him. The more the enemy hits him, the longer this state lasts. For her, she wasn't hitting him hard enough to activate this state so he was blocked from one of his strongest abilities.

"Hmm… so if I see him again, I'll need to control my damage output with the bow or else he'll activate this ability against me. Once that happens, it'll be quite a pain since I'm already struggling with dodging his attacks now, nevermind when he rages.' Shiro mused to herself before putting the book back.

Saying thanks to the receptionist once more, she started to make her way towards the blacksmiths.

There were signs of people setting up their stations but there were only one or two so Shiro decided to wait by the side. After around an hour or so, more and more blacksmiths started to arrive.

Spotting a woman that matched the description of Maria who had blond hair, Shiro stood up and walked towards her.