Spending the next few days trying to construct the magic circle, Shiro was a little upset to see that her mana realm still hasn’t finished evolving.
Even with her large mana pool and ridiculous mana regen, it didn’t seem like the mana realm was going to complete anytime soon.
Sitting on her bed, Shiro sighed out softly as it was approaching the one month deadline for the next event. If she isn’t able to use her mana freely, she’ll have to fight while constantly consuming mana potions.
Though even if she had access to everything, it’ll be hard since she couldn’t fight for an extended period of time. During the last few days, she had done a few experiments with Nan Tian to see how long she could keep her cool during combat and her current limit is 10 minutes. Any longer than that and her reaction speed starts to decrease. Her vision would darken and fighting in that state would be suicide.
Once she got to that point, she’ll need at least 2 minutes to recover.
As for Yin, she hasn’t been able to pin down the final fragment at all. Even with their information network, there was not a single sign which made finding it much harder.
“Are you alright?” Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
“Yeah just thinking about the event. I wonder if it’ll be one that’s reliant on a single person or multiple people.” Shiro replied.
“Well looking at the past events, there’s an 80% chance for this to be one that requires the Queens forces. So it’s best to see how Shiina, Oran and Akhess are doing. They’ve been training the mech pilots and they seemed a little sad that they don’t have the mini Shiro holograms.” Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro scratched her cheek.
“I can’t exactly sustain the holograms with how much mana is being drained per second. Even for a few minutes of combat, I’ll need to keep drinking potions to keep myself fighting at full power.” Shiro replied.
“But setting that aside, we should go visit them a little. It’s been a while since I have last seen them after all, I’m sure they’re a bit worried.” Shiro smiled.
Jumping off the bed, Shiro stretched lightly before checking her tablet for Shiina’s schedule. Seeing that the three of them were in the mech bay training new recruits, she figured that it was a pretty good time to see how they were doing.
“Hmm… say, do you think we should put on a disguise so that they don’t recognise us?” Shiro asked as Nan Tian raised his eyebrows before shrugging.
“It’s up to you. If you want to put on a disguise then I don’t mind putting one on as well.”
“Alright. Let’s see… we’ll use the disguise we put on when we visited the Navuri clan far into the uncharted lands. Though now that I think about it, I’m curious about how they’ve managed to survive so far. I’ve looked on the map but it doesn’t seem like their settlement has been discovered by the Queen’s yet.” Shiro shrugged as Nan Tian activated the disguise spell and changed their appearances.
“Well we can certainly give them a visit perhaps even recruit them. But seeing as how they quite… oppressive and focus on power, I don’t think they’ll hang out nicely with our citizens. If anything, it’ll be akin to asking them to completely change their way of living. It’ll be difficult.” Nan Tian replied as the two of them made their way towards the military base.
“That’s true… If I didn’t put this disguise on, I think one of their ‘alpha males’ would have tried to force me to join his harem.” Shiro winced in disgust as she could feel goosebumps on her skin.
Rubbing her arm to get rid of the goosebumps, she shook her head.
“Regardless. If they’re doing fine then we’ll let them be. If they’re not, we’ll give them a bit of help, maybe even establish some trade. I’m still curious about their strange sea that drains mana at a rapid pace. If we can repurpose it, we can use it as a security measure. Plus, I’m also curious to see what kind of materials we can harvest from the island where we found the garden spirit.” Shiro smiled.
“Indeed. But we’ll have to be careful. We don’t know if there are any powerful monsters there after the world changed.” Nan Tian reminded as Shiro nodded her head.
“Speaking of powerful monsters, there’s still this dragon living on Astral Horizons. Last time I went there I was reduced to ash in a single moment. Had I not activated my skill to revive me instantly, I would be gone.” Shiro sighed, remembering the dragon that killed her in an instant.
“Do you want to try sending some scouts over when we have time?” Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
“Sure but not in the city. Probably do it somewhere else so that the dragon can’t track us. If it does appear in the city, I don’t think we’ll be able to stop casualties from happening even with my powers.” Shiro furrowed her brows as Nan Tian nodded his head.
“Of course. We’ll see if we can make contact with the dragon. If we can get him to become our ally, he could become a great ally. Especially if it’s someone that well…”
“Killed me in one shot?” Shiro cut off as Nan Tian chuckled.
“Yeah. That.”
“I’m not offended if anything I’m a little impressed. The fact that he just completely destroyed my defences with a quick aoe attack to deal with me was simply overwhelming. If we can get him to become our ally, it would prove to be a powerful guardian.” Shiro agreed.
Talking about a few plans on their way towards the military base, Shiro made her way towards Shiina, Oran and Akhess’ location with Nan Tian next to her.
Making their way past the guards rather easily with a few ‘ID and clearance checks, they were allowed through the base. The guards weren’t exactly worried that they were fake either since hacking into the database here was quite difficult. There has been one or two attempts before but they didn’t get far before the hacker’s were paralysed from the backlash and had their location broadcasted to security.
After making her way through the first few walls of security, she entered the mech bay where all of the working mechs were being stored at this time.
All of the specialised mechs were lined up by the side and it seemed as though they haven’t been in a fight for a while. Seeing as though there weren’t many spare parts being used in the repair, Shiina, Oran, Akhess and the other pilots limited themselves to the standard models unless it was an emergency.
“Hmm… I should make some more spare parts so they can continue to train with the specialised units. More features will unlock as they become familiar with the mech.” Shiro shrugged as they’re walking down the stairs towards the training area. Currently, all of the specialised pilots are responsible for a group of trainees each as Shiina, Oran and Akhess had the largest groups since they’re the most experienced.
###
“Focus! If you get distracted during a fight your opponent will put an end to you swiftly. Even if you are in a mech, it cannot guarantee your safety should you be distracted.” I shouted out towards the new group of recruits.
They had heart and determination to enter the army but it needed refining. If they were hasty, their will power could be broken in half with ease.
Shaking my head, I glanced up at the three specialised units that her highness had gifted us. With her recent disappearance, we haven’t piloted the specialised units at all since unlike the standard units, finding replacements parts had to be done through her highness. Without her, we wouldn’t be able to repair them at all.
I wanted to put them to the test again but didn’t want the city to be in danger so I could only dream for now.
“Seems like these are the new recruits.” A voice called out as I glanced back and saw a duo walking towards them with a small smile.
Both of them didn’t stand out due to their appearance but the aura coming from the guy told me otherwise.
“Yes they are. May I know who you are since you don’t seem familiar.” I frowned since I wasn’t sure of their identity.
“Oh just spectators. Here’s our clearance. We’re new to the job so we’re just looking around for a bit.” The girl smiled as she showed me her badge. Seeing that her clearance was something on equal to specialised pilots, I was a little curious about her since I’ve never seen her but I guessed it was probably the council doing their thing.
“Ah that’s fine then. Is there anything you need from us?” I asked but the girl shook her head.
“Don’t mind us. We’re just here to watch. The training seemed interesting so I’m just going to spectate.” She smiled before stepping aside and watched without saying anything.
Finding it a little strange, I decided to continue the training but kept an eye on the duo, especially the girl who watched everything with a calm smile.
