Chapter 95 Hand Cannon Creation
After resting for a few moments, Shiro woke everyone up.
[We should eat something and get moving again.]
Reading what she had written, the party nodded in agreement.
"Hmm, I'll distribute the first set of rations." Jonas said whilst he pulled out a few packages.
[I'm fine for rations. Share it amongst yourselves.] Shiro shook her head and jumped up into the higher trees.
Looking around, she scouted to see if any of the larger beasts were coming.
'From the looks of it, the final boss hasn't released any of the mini bosses just yet. Hmm…' She thought whilst narrowing her eyes.
Another thing that she realised was the fact that the boss didn't send out his killing intent as frequently as he had before.
This gave the party enough time to rest properly and regain their stamina.
Shiro was about to continue her scouting when Lyrica landed on a tree branch next to her's.
"Shiro, you need to eat. Out of all of us, you're using the most amount of energy." Lyrica said with a displeased face.
Shiro only smiled wearily when she heard this.
[Trust me Lyrica. I don't need it. Save it for the rest of you.]
"Nope. I'm not budging on this. You WILL eat." Lyrica said handing her the packaged rations.
Sighing slightly, Shiro took the package and only grabbed half of the contents.
[I'll only eat half, no more.] Shiro typed out.
Lyrica thought for a second and nodded.
"Fine, but I'm saving this half for you." Lyrica said as she hopped down from her branch.
Chuckling to herself, Shiro unwrapped the contents.
'Some bread and water huh?' She thought and stored the food in her inventory without them realising.
After waiting for a short moment, Shiro saw the everyone had finished preparing and were ready to head out once more.
[Same plan as yesterday. I'll draw the boss's attention while you guys level up.]
"Alright."
Setting off in different directions, Shiro stretched her body slightly before preparing herself to fight against another horde of monsters.
###
After fighting for five days, the party was looking rather worn out. Their complexions weren't great as Shiro knew they had to kill the final boss soon.
The main problem during these five days was food. Since they were fighting battles every day, they needed a large supply of food.
While they did have a lot of monster meat, they weren't able to make enough time for them to cook enough meat since the smell would attract the monsters over to where they were.
During this, they were rather surprised at how Shiro's complexion stayed the same. There were lingering suspicions but none voice it out.
In addition to this, Silvia, Lyrica and Madison had experienced a pretty substantial growth to their levels.
[Silvia LVL 35 – Grand Healer]
[Lyrica LVL 33 – Elven Bladedancer]
[Madison LVL 33 – Demon Knight]
Lyrica had managed to level up three times while Madison had levelled up five times. But that was to be expected since they were killing level 50's whilst they were only in their level 20's.
Unfortunately, Shiro hadn't managed to level up just yet but she knew she was close once again.
However, they weren't the only ones to level up. Jonas, Trace, Paul and Erica had all managed to level up once.
[Once Silvia reaches level 36, we're going to eat a full meal, rest up and fight the final boss to get out of here.]
"That fast?" Jonas asked, lacking the energy he had at the start.
[I don't think we have any other choice. Plus, the boss should be getting rather desperate as well since I've been baiting him for the past five days.] Shiro shook her head.
She also knew that the longer they stayed in here, something was bound to go wrong. Trace and Paul were already having second thoughts as they would occasionally eye the girls in the party.
Shiro didn't blame them too much since they had the mentality that they were going to die.
If they lingered in the dungeon any longer, they might do something they'll regret.
[Well just know that today is the last day that I'll be baiting the boss. So you guys better try level up as much as you can.]
"Alright, good luck." Jonas replied as he stood up.
Thinking to herself for a moment, Shiro hid her hands in her sleeves and made something quickly.
[Lyrica, Madison, good luck.] Shiro smiled and patted their shoulders.
"It should be us saying good luck." Lyrica smiled back tiredly. Due to the stress over the past five days, she hadn't been back to sleep properly. Dark rings could be seen under her eyes while she was looking pretty ragged.
The same went for Madison.
Moving separately, Shiro could only sigh seeing what this dungeon had done to the girls.
'After getting out, I don't think they'll be in any shape to do more dungeons for the time being.' Shiro thought.
Once she arrived her a clearing, she was about to send out her killing intent when she quickly leapt backwards into a fighting stance with eight daggers in her hands.
"Masterrrr sendsss a messageee…." A monster said slowly as he walked out of the shadows.
Shiro was shocked but quickly calmed down.
"What message?" She asked with narrowed eyes.
"Whyyy do you standdd…. Withhh… the huumanssss…" The monster said.
'Seems like he just started to gain intelligence.' Shiro thought.
Rift Walker.
Appearing behind the monster, Shiro had thin nanotech wire wrapped around the monster's neck.
*BAM!
Kicking the head and torso of the monster, Shiro decapitated him easily.
There was no point conversing with it. She might as well make her stand clear with her actions.
As soon as she killed the messenger, Shiro could feel hundreds of intents lock onto her.
"Well that saves me the trouble of looking for you." Shiro muttered.
###
*BAM BAM BAM!
Quickly three strikes from the monsters, Madison secured the aggro while Lyrica finished the monster off efficiently.
Over the past five days, they had polished up their movements so that it would use the least amount of energy when fighting the monsters.
While they were fighting, Silvia would cast spells on them to make sure that they were rejuvenated but there was only so much a spell can do. Especially since it was only at Tier 1.
Since the three girls needed the most EXP, Jonas, Trace and Paul only assisted when they needed to.
Trace and Paul looked at each other and could see the desperation in their eyes.
They gulped slightly and shifted their gaze over to the girls.
"Don't think about it lads. Don't do something you'll regret." Jonas said, placing a hand on both their shoulders.
"I know the times seem dire but trust in the little miss. No one could hold back a monster horde at level 38 but the little miss did it. How do you think she'll react if you did what you planned to do?" Jonas asked with a serious face.
During their conversations, he too knew that his two friends were getting desperate and he wanted to help change that.
Plus, he had no doubt that Shiro will kill them in the most gruesome way should they lay a hand on her friends.
Trace and Paul paled slightly as Jonas sighed.
"Just trust in her a little longer. We're going to fight the final boss after the three girls level up. Don't decrease our chances of leaving this dungeon alive." Jonas reminded and patted their shoulders heavily to wake them up.
The two made a guilty face and sighed.
"Sorry…" They replied.
"Just keep your head up and don't lose hope." Jonas smiled wearily.
'Ah… I think I should probably retire after this. Hais…' He thought as he knew he wasn't talented. Or else it wouldn't have taken him this long to become a level 37.
'If I live through this, I should probably settle down with a wife and have some kids…' He mused to himself as he tried to give himself something to work towards.
###
Wiping herself from all the blood and gore, she realised that there were no more monsters.
"Have I killed the entire army now?" She muttered.
Everyday she was killing a large amount of monsters while employing guerrilla tactics to make sure she wasn't in too much danger.
Little by little she had thinned out the crowd without even noticing.
"Will there be enough monsters for the girls to level up I wonder."
Taking this chance to harvest as many mana stones as she could with the help of Yin, she then collected all the loot. With the monstrous amounts of loot she had acquired over the past five days, she wasn't going to sort through them just yet.
Both she and Yin had experienced level ups during this fight.
[Yin – LVL 30]
HP: 58,000/58,000
MP: 190,000/190,000
With Yin reaching level 30, Shiro had expected a skill but was surprised to see that Yin hadn't gained a skill.
'Hmm, might take longer then.' Shiro thought and updated her own status. She had expected herself to level up more but could only sigh at the fact that she only levelled up once despite killing so many.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Intermediate Monster (0/50 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion
Level: 39
Class: Snow Girl★★★, Nanomancer
HP: 100,500/133,140
MP: 37,200/215,250
STR: 720 (+110)
VIT: 920 (+95)
INT: 1250 -> 1400 (+240)
AGI: 820 -> 920 (+120)
DEX: 750 (+70)
DEF: 320 (+100)
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 250 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice – Tier 2
Lightning – Tier 1
Metal – Tier 0
Shadow – Tier 0
Balance: 24,700,010 USD
Equipment (Tap to Display)
Skills –
Snow Girl ★★★:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath. Ice Field Affinity
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation (New)
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1)]
With her level up, she had used 150 points into INT in order for her to unlock something that she had been anticipating for so long.
[Hand Cannon Creation]
Cost: 50,000 MP (Minimum)
Bullets: 5,000 Per Shot (Minimum)
With her having access to her Hand Cannons once more, it means that she's able to use the blueprints that she loved so much.
Each of these blueprints were specialised and had more diversity than her cold arms. That was because her Nanomancer class was primarily a mid to long ranged class rather than close ranged. Plus, there were hardly any cold arm blueprints to begin with.
Shiro couldn't hold back her grin as this meant that she was able to use her guns once more.
"Ah but this isn't the time yet. I need to focus on clearing the dungeon." Shiro said trying to wipe the grin off her face but failed.
Only taking a short moment to calm herself did she stop grinning.
'With the main army dead from what I can assume, that means the mini bosses are most likely inside the castle. if they're with the final boss, it'll be harder to win. If they're not, this dungeon's as good as cleared. With my Hand Cannons as a backup in case things go south, I'll be able to kill the boss solo.' Shiro thought to herself.
The main problem lies with how she's going to explain to them and the fact that she doesn't trust Jonas' party to keep her secret.
'I'll see how the party fairs without the help of my Nanomancer class first. If things go to sh*t, I'll use it then.' Shiro thought as she made her way back to the party.
When she arrived, she saw Trace and Paul having slight hints of guilt on their faces.
Shiro narrowed her eyes as her face became cold.
'They shouldn't have… but the devices didn't pick up anything.' Shiro thought.
However, she quickly shifted her face back to normal.
[Alright, the monster army had been wiped out. So I guess it's time to fight the bosses in the castle.]
"Wait, wiped out?!" Trace cried out in shock. He had given up on hope, which is why he was planning something that he would have regretted.
And yet, seeing that a level 39 had wiped out a small army of level 50's rekindled that hope inside him.
[Yes I have.] Shiro replied but her eyes were cold.
Jonas realised that Shiro had a small idea on what could have happened due to their guilty faces that were obvious to the observant eye.
[So right now, the party is made up of one level 39, two level 38's, two level 37's, a level 36 and two level 34's. Jonas, you and Madison will serve as the tankers. I'll be supporting both long ranged and close ranged combat. Erica, when we start, I just want you to fire everything you have at the boss. Close rangers will be Trace, Paul and Lyrica. And Silvia, just heal the crap out of the tankers and give us support every once in a while. Any questions?] Shiro typed out.
"None." They all replied.
[Good because we got a bunch of mini bosses and a final boss ahead of us. They're level 50 but we can win with a healer like Silvia on our team.] Shiro said as she stood up straight.
They started to make their way towards the main castle when Jonas wanted a word with her.
"Both you and I know what was about to happen and I just want to say sorry. The stress had gotten to them. I've already gave them both a warning." Jonas said apologetically.
[Since that's the case then I won't do anything. Just know that if they did, I would personally open the gates of hell for them.] Shiro replied before regrouping with everyone else.
Jonas only sighed in relief as that meant Shiro won't make a move on them.