Chapter 110 Ascendant Dream
Arriving back at the camp, she wasn’t ambushed by any people. However, she was surprised that Lyrica was back so soon.
Looking at Lyrica who was sitting in the shade of a tree, Shiro walked over.
[You’ve finished already?] Shiro asked.
"Yeah, I was eliminated quickly." Lyrica forced a slight smile.
[What happened?]
"Well, after I entered the trial realm for the Nirvana Soul Blades, I was bombarded from all sides by attacks and I had no weapons. I wasn’t even allowed to use my skills and all I had were these four swords.
"Unfortunately, they were barely responding to my mana so I wasn’t able to control them to help me. I only have two hands and with the blades being uncooperative, I wasn’t able to survive for long and immediately got transferred out of the realm." Lyrica explained as Shiro thought about it and nodded.
That did make sense since the trial for a set of Purple + grade equipment weren’t going to be easy.
"Mn? Shiro, did... did your b.r.e.a.s.ts grow a little?" Lyrica asked seeing the slight change to Shiro’s body shape.
[You noticed? I just starred up so there were a few changes to my body.] Shiro replied feeling a little bit of happiness well up inside her once again.
However, as soon as she typed that, she realised that she was being a little too open with her emotions.
*Ahem
Coughing slightly, Shiro reined in her happiness and reverted herself back to the more composed side of her.
[Yeah, my star up changed my body again. It seems like this time the target was my b.r.e.a.s.ts.] Shiro retyped and showed it to Lyrica.
"Heh~... Is that so? Then you don’t think that after you class up, you’ll gain an "a.d.u.l.t" body like Madi would you?"
Shiro thought for a moment and agreed at the fact that it could very likely be the case. After all, once she classes up, she would be classified as a C ranked monster.
The closer she got to B rank, the more a.d.u.l.t like she’d become on the physical side because at B rank, she’d become a Snow Woman. Of course that’s only if she doesn’t deviate from her evolution path. However, from what she understood, after choosing to become a snow woman, it would be very hard to evolve into anything after that.
Even in her past life, they were few mentions of the roles after snow woman.
Therefore, it was definitely in her best interest to stray from her evolution path so that she could reach the apex once more.
[Well I hope so. But I think it will take me a while to enter C rank since I need to obtain some medicine that will hopefully cure one of my internal injuries. Otherwise, I can give up thinking about classing up.] Shiro shrugged with a soft smile.
"Eh? You have internal injuries?" Lyrica asked surprised.
"Wait... could it be what’s causing you to struggle with upholding your spells for a long time?" She asked with a frown.
[You noticed?] Shiro was slightly surprised.
"Well of course. I mean I always look a- Cough! I mean I always check up on how the party is during a fight. And I’ve noticed that you become paler the more you use your magic in a fight." Lyrica replied whilst correcting herself mid-sentence.
"And from what I know, there are only few cases where mages would struggle with spells. Either A, you’re low on mana. B, you don’t have the capabilities to use the spell or C, damaged mana links. Clearly A and B are wrong since you could easily cast those spells so that only leaves C. You’ve damaged your mana links haven’t you?" Lyrica analysed whilst furrowing her brows.
Shiro was pleasantly surprised at how Lyrica knew but only smiled.
’I wish they were just damaged instead of broken, that’ll make things easier!’
[Yeah, I’ve already got someone to order me a pill that’ll help my mana links so you don’t have to worry.] Shiro smiled.
"Hmm... well if it doesn’t work, we can always look for more ways to heal your mana links. I heard that as long as your mana links aren’t broken, it’s not a lost cause."
’But this missy’s mana links are broken ah! That’s the lost cause you’re talking about!’
[Yeah, well since you failed the Nirvana Soul Blade Trials, I’m going to give it a go.] Shiro replied and stood up.
If she also failed it, she would then convert the blades into some normal defensive equipment for Lyrica.
Lyrica nodded and handed over the blades.
[Would you like to enter the Trial Realm for the Nirvana Soul Blades? Y/N]
Looking at the notification, Shiro gave Lyrica a light wave before pressing yes.
Feeling her vision shift, she instantly felt killing intent attack her from all sides.
"Starting already huh!" Shiro grinned and grabbed two of the Nirvana Soul Blades with her hands.
*DANG DANG!!
Deflecting the attacks that attacked her, Shiro inserted mana to the other two blades and frowned.
’No wonder Lyrica couldn’t control these. They require a specific energy path to be activated. Seems like the first trial was to figure out the energy path whilst simultaneously fending off the incoming attacks.
*DANG DANG!
Deflecting a few more attacks, Shiro flipped her body backwards as she retreated for a short moment. While she was doing this, she was also splitting her attention in probing the other two blades that hung on her waist, slowly figuring out their energy path.
Previously, the moment she entered this Trial Realm, she had already tried to use her magic and passive abilities but to no avail. That led her to understand that in this realm, she could only use the blades in her hands.
Naturally, her grin slowly faded since she knew that she should get serious. The only times where she was serious and weren’t distracted were rare.
Except for a few situations after her reincarnation, she was essentially having a fun stroll whilst enjoying the feeling of growth.
Breathing out steadily, her eyes snapped open and were completely void of any emotions.
Shifting her body to narrowly avoid a few strikes whilst swinging her sword to deflect the strikes she couldn’t dodge, Shiro essentially created a small domain around her that couldn’t be penetrated no matter how hard and how fast the strikes were. This was her benefit of being able to grasp 100% of her body movements.
While it wasn’t currently at 100%, it was certainly hovering around the 80% mark. During this entire time of her reincarnation, she spent every second familiarising herself with her body. Walking, resting, parkouring and fighting.
The reach of her attacks, the range of flexibility and the limit of her body strength.
With her mind completely focused on defence and mapping out the energy path of the blades, she was akin to a war goddess that had no flaws in her defences.
As she continued to defend herself, she also made progress with the remaining two blades.
The moment her mind had fully mapped the blades, she flooded both blades with her mana.
*BANG!!!!
Slashing away all of the attacks that were aimed towards her, Shiro now had four swords hovering around her that were being controlled with a wave of her fingers.
*DANG DANG DANG DANG!
The swords ring of action created an orb of absolute defence around her.
Glancing at the current defence of the other three blades that were coordinating with the sword that she was controlling, Shiro couldn’t help but applause at the power behind the Nirvana Soul Blades.
Her seriousness was replaced by her usual relaxed demeanour as she glanced at where she was meant to go.
’Hmm... seems like I’m meant to go towards the giant gate ahead.’ She thought when she saw the faint outline of a golden gate into the distance.
With her target set, Shiro flicked her wrist as one of the swords floated in front of her. Hopping onto the sword, Shiro flew towards the gate while the other three blades would defend her.
After a short moment of travel, the gate outline became clearer. However, she was also forced to land back on the ground due to the intensity of the attacks that were striking towards her.
Previously, even though she wasn’t too familiar with the blades, she could still handle the attacks. But she discovered that the closer she got to the gate, the more intense these attacks became.
Controlling the blades to defend her, Shiro narrowed her eyes when she saw her advancement speed slow down dramatically. She could only take a step forward every few seconds since the moment she did, a small gap would open up in her defences and the attacks would aim for that gap.
This forced her to try to mend her gaps the moment she finished her steps which in turn, would decrease her progression speed.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro glanced at the swords and started to memorise their movement patterns. Standing in place for a short moment, she was able to understand their unique pattern of movement.
Even though it was still chaotic, there were times of order. That was due to the fact that if everything was chaotic, everything would be randomised. Forget keeping her safe, the blades wouldn’t even be able to correctly hit the attacks if they were truly random.
However, it was also when it flipped its switch to order, the blades would become predictable.
Hence why gaps would appear the moment she took a step.
The only way to fix this would be to find the perfect balance between chaos and order. Chaos brought unpredictability in both attack and defence. But order, on the other hand, brought predictability and consistency.
’Chaos is best suited for attacks but order is too predictable for defence.’ Shiro sighed. There was also the option of using defensive sword arts with the Nirvana Soul Blades to defend herself, but she had never learnt any defensive sword art.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro swept her gaze towards the swords that were currently busy protecting her.
"What if I tried to pair it up with my Yin Style Phantom Arts? Perhaps if I try to recreate what each of the phantoms did, I’ll have a better chance." Shiro muttered and started to experiment whilst being bombarded by the attacks.
The best way to develop a technique was through combat and this was the perfect moment to develop a sword art to be stored in her arsenal.
###
She wasn’t sure about how long it had been but things started to gradually get easier for her. Unfortunately, she still wasn’t able to create a sword technique.
"Hais... it’s not like I’m an avid sword user in the first place. It’ll be stranger if I did come up with a technique." Shiro shrugged her shoulders. However, her control over the Nirvana Soul Blades had become much more refined when compared to the first time she used the blades.
Flicking her wrist, the swords orbited around her like satellites. She made sure that they were working on two separate layers with three on the outside and one on the inside that would cover for any gaps that would appear.
While this made it easier for the attacks to slip through the first layer, they were stopped easily on the second layer.
But in order for Shiro to do this, she had to simultaneously control two of the swords.
Since the pressure of the attacks had been reduced by a rather significant amount, Shiro walked towards the gates once more but this time with more success.
Like before, the closer she got, the more attacks would be shot towards her. However, with her two layered defences, it was still a breeze for her.
[Nirvana Trial Blades: Stage 1 complete.]
Seeing the notification, Shiro was suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling of falling. Looking down, she saw that a hole had opened up beneath her and that she was currently falling towards a small light in the distance.
’Hmm, I guess that’s were stage 2 is going to be held.’ She thought to herself as she controlled the blades to help her increase her falling speed.
It didn’t take long for her to arrive at the second stage. Slowing down her speed, Shiro landed softly on the floor and looked around.
The room she was currently in had the feeling of being a tomb of sorts. There were empty graves and weapons lying around. Further down in the room, there were ten graves that had not been touched just yet.
Oddly enough, Shiro could instinctively feel what this stage wanted her to do. Furrowing her brows, Shiro decided to go along with the feeling and walked towards the coffin furthest away from her.
Looking at the gold plated coffin, Shiro placed her hand on the surface and closed her eyes.
A set of seals started to spread out from her palms as the Nirvana Soul Blades started to experience a change.
Their shapes were melted down before shifting around in an attempt to recast itself. Naturally, Shiro was unaware of this as she was sent into a spiritual realm of sorts where she was in a phantom form.
Looking around, all she saw was a boundless plain of white before she suddenly felt pain in her body. It was a familiar pain to when she would overexert her mana links.
Gritting her teeth, she suddenly saw four orbs of light surround her.
Dark purple, neon yellow, sky blue and silver.
She could sense that they were elements but wasn’t sure as to why they would appear in front of her.
Her thoughts were broken when she saw the system notification.
[Compatibility evaluated: 91%]
[Stage 2 passed]
[Nirvana Soul Blades unlocked and bound to Shiro.]
[Nirvana Soul Blades (Purple+) -> Ascendant Dream (Orange)]
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