Chapter 437 Repairing The Spear
For the next four days, Kuromi spent that time getting the shadow guards to spread the news about the families in Teriu acquiring a special spell that allows them to demonstrate strength that's beyond their normal capabilities. A rumour of how a certain family was destroyed because they had obtained this spell.
Since there was some truth mixed into this along with a few lies such as 'it was due to this spell that they could kill the giant and fend off the dragon', the families in the surrounding cities started to send in spies relentlessly to get the truth. In a world where the law of the jungle prevails, such a spell could turn their lives around so many of them wanted to obtain it at all cost.
There were a few families who were suspicious of this rumour but once some evidence started to appear in their reports, this suspicion disappeared.
Meetings were held in secret between a few families as they formed teams under a temporary truce to obtain this spell.
With truces being formed and swords being sharpened to attack Teriu, the families that live in Teriu panicked and tried to release news saying that the spell was fake all along.
However, with Shiro and Kuromi's family being destroyed because of this spell, they dismissed the news as an excuse to try to keep the spell all to themselves.
During this time, both girls continued to research the spear and the spell relentlessly so that it could be put to use in their next battle. They wanted to improve the spell since the energy was too inefficient for their liking and would hinder Shiro's ability to fight while the spear was a key clue to talk to this 'Celestial Goddess'.
"Right then, I suppose this is test number 114. Shiro, give it a try and see if you can form a connection. If it succeeds, see if you can charge it." Kuromi asked while writing down some notes.
They were currently in the middle of their courtyard as Shiro held the spear in both her hands.
Nodding her head, Shiro closed her eyes and funnelled Celestial Energy through her hands and into the spear.
Creating a special type of magic circle that Kuromi had designed after several trials, the crystal in the middle of the spearhead started to glow with a slight blue.
After a few moments, Shiro had to stop and took a deep breath.
"Same as test 83. While I can somewhat charge the spear, most of the energy is dispersed outwards. The cracks in the crystal don't make this process any easier either." Shiro shook her head.
"*sigh* Figures. Anyways, I think I've managed to make some small breakthroughs in terms of how you should construct the magic circle. The main problem is containment so maybe we need a secondary element from your Armour to seal up the crystal for it to store the energy. Only problem with this is that we haven't exactly improved on the spell so the energy usage is still less than desirable." Kuromi shook her head with a tired sigh. Massaging her eyes for a moment, she leaned back and took a short break.
"Just take your time for now I guess. Maybe if you took a break, you might have an eureka moment." Shiro suggested while stabbing the spear into the ground. Walking inside the inn, she brought out two cups of juice and handed one over to Kuromi.
"Thanks." Kuromi nodded and took a sip of the juice.
"Mn? That's pretty sweet. Have you made a new blend of juice?" She raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"Yup. I mixed that berry the old man trader sold from across the street with some orange looking things I found before. The result is pretty nice." Shiro smiled.
"Indeed. The initial taste is a little impactful but the aftertaste is quite nice." Kuromi smiled.
"That's nice to hear. With you and the guards doing most of the work and me just helping you do these experiments, I thought that I might as well get a hobby for now and making juice to be pretty fun." Shiro chuckled as she finished her juice.
Setting the empty cup aside, she grabbed the spear once more and twirled it in her hands.
"Right then, what shall I do for experiment 115?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Hang one, I'm just writing something down right now. You can experiment a little with enhancing your body with Celestial Energy." Kuromi suggested.
In these four days, Phillip had also taught them a few basic spells that every user knows when they first start practising with this energy. One of the basic spells was physical enhancement and it worked in a similar way to how one would enhance their bodies with mana.
Nodding her head, Shiro closed her eyes for a moment before letting Celestial Energy flow through her entire body.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to find the best route in terms of energy use so that she could somewhat compensate for this ridiculous energy usage.
As she continued to try to find the best route, Kuromi was designing a few spell circles in her book.
Since the main problem was trying to patch up the cracks that had appeared after the spear ran out of charges, she needed to find an efficient way to patch up that hole so that they could use the spear's full power without wasting too much energy.
'Hmm… out of all the elements that Shiro could use, Cosmic Ice was probably the one that had the highest compatibility with the spear. We've already tried this element in test 32 and it only enhances the spear further, making it drain more energy. That's the opposite of what we want since we need something to contain the energy and not burn it out faster.' Kuromi mused to herself while writing down what effect each of the elements had with the spear.
Out of all the elements that Shiro could control, the one with the highest chance of succeeding in 'patching up the hole' was surprisingly her water element/Oceanic Abyss. The thing with this element was that it revolved around dragging her enemies to the depths of the sea and drowning them while not giving them a chance to escape from the currents.
All she had to do was contain the energy within the crystal through this 'current'. However, the problem with this element is that the longer the current continues, the stronger it gets. Eventually, it gets to a point where not even Shiro, the user, could control it. With a 'volatile' element such as this, it was hard to put into action during battle.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she continued to formulate some prototypes in her mind.
Just like that, another 3 days passed as the tension between the surrounding families and Teriu seemed to be at an all time high. They were ready to launch an assault at any moment but decided to wait for now since there was news that the royal family was going to participate in this battle.
With the royal family joining in under the pretence of hoping to solve everything peacefully. With this excuse, the families had no choice but to wait since it would be treason should they start the battle without the royal family's permission after saying that they wanted to solve things peacefully.
However, since the royal family was responsible for everything to begin with, their presence here threw an unpredictable variable in Kuromi's plans which she wasn't exactly happy with. But regardless of what was happening in the outside world, Kuromi wasn't paying attention since they were on the verge of a breakthrough after three days of continuous experimentation.
If their next experiment succeeds, they would have completed all of their preparations and even if the royal family joins, they could still proceed with the plan.
"Ready when you are Shiro." Kuromi said with an excited smile.
Nodding her head, Shiro closed her eyes and stabbed the spear into the ground. A giant magic circle expanded out from under her feet as she donned her Rift Shadow armour. However, there was something different about it this time since the shadows almost behaved like ocean waves.
From her arm, a black and blue tendril of sorts could be seen crawling up the spear before making contact with the crystal in the centre.
*BOOM!!!
Releasing a blinding ray of light, the spear seemed to transform in her hands as parts of the spear split apart to reveal additional components.
Holding the now transformed spear, Shiro could feel her energy being contained within the crystal as they had managed to repair the spear and charge it up with more energy so that it could be used in future battles.